IOC Lankan branch not to blame for fuel shortage: Lanka PM

Sri Lankan Prime Minister Ranil Wickremesinghe today refused to blame the Indian Oil Company's subsidiary in Sri Lanka for the ongoing fuel shortage in the island nation.
The Lanka Indian Oil Company (LIOC) has received flak for the fuel shortage after motorists lined up in long queues at petrol stations. The company has denied any responsibility for the crisis.
"I do not agree that LIOC should be blamed," Wickremesinghe told parliament.
"We must remember that LIOC outlets helped people during the last petroleum strike," he stressed.
His response came even as the petroleum minister and petroleum trade unions have blamed LIOC claiming the current fuel shortage was caused by the rejection of the company's fuel shipment due to poor quality standards.

Wickremesinghe said President Maithripala Sirisena had spoken to the Indian High Commissioner here and India had agreed to send an emergency fuel supply ship to Sri Lanka.

He said the decision to handover a market share for fuel retail to the Indian Oil Company was taken during his earlier stint as premier in 2002 and if the opposition feels that the deal was bad he asked why did former president Mahinda Rajapaksa not take action to end the company's contract during his 10-year rule.
"We came to an agreement with the then Indian PM Vajpayee's government," Wickremesinghe said.
Since last Friday long queues were seen near petrol retailers as the state petroleum entity Ceylon Petroleum Corporation had suffered a delay of its own shipment.

LIOC in a statement last night denied that their shipment issue had caused the fuel shortage in the country saying they only control 16 per cent of the fuel retail market.
"As a reliable distributor of petroleum products in Sri Lanka over many years, LIOC is making all efforts to assist in the early resolution of this problem. However, attempts by some to blame LIOC for causing the shortage are mischievous and factually incorrect, and we categorically reject such allegations," it said.
The LIOC said it catered to only 16 per cent of the Sri Lankan market, while the remaining 84 per cent relied on Ceylon Petroleum Corporation (CPC) supplies.

"Thus, large shortages across the country can only be caused by disruption in supplies of CPC (the Sri Lankan government petroleum entity)," the statement said.
"It may be noted that LIOC has adequate stocks...and normal daily diesel sales of 775 MT are continuously happening from all our sheds across the country. It is total misrepresentation of facts that diesel is not being sold by LIOC sheds," the statement said.
LIOC is a professionally managed subsidiary of a Fortune 500 Global company, and plans its product requirements well in advance and maintains necessary stocks, it added.