Sri Lanka threw open its lubricant market in July, calling for bids from interested investors to blend lubricants locally or import and sell packed products.
We have got over ten offers from local and foreign firms, Rohantha Seneviratne Director of the Public Enterprise Reform Commission (PERC) said Monday.
The licenses would be on a revolving basis, with application called for every four months. It takes about three months for each batch of applications to be processed.
There are six international lubricant brands currently operating in Sri Lanka, the biggest being Caltex, the local arm of Chevron Texaco that also has a blending plant.
About 20 percent of the market is held by Lanka Indian Oil Corporation and eight percent is split between Mobil, Valvoline, Shell and BP/Castrol
Among the offers is also a bid from local entrant the Laugfs group, whose current interests are in Liquefied Petroleum Gas, retailing of petroleum fuels and a chain of ten supermark