Lankan Court orders detention of ship with contaminated oil

A Sri Lankan court today ordered the authorities here to detain a Vietnamese vessel which had carried a stock of contaminated diesel imported by Lanka Indian Oil Company (LIOC).
The Colombo High Court ordered the detention of 'Vina Lion's Glory' which had caused a loss of USD 2.5 million to the Indian Oil Company's Lanka entity.
The LIOC claimed that the 4500 MT of oil had complied with the necessary quality standards when shipped from Singapore.
However the lab tests done in Colombo had proved that the consignment was contaminated and therefore was of a sub standard quality.
The fuel had been contaminated during the voyage from Singapore due to no fault of the supplier or the importer, the LIOC said.

The ship is currently berthed in the eastern port of Trincomalee.
In mid February, the state fuel entity Ceylon Petroleum Corporation (CPC) had said that the consignment would not be allowed for distribution as the quality tests have proved it to be contaminated and sub standard.
The CPC was also accused of importing sub quality fuel in 2011.