Minister of Power and Energy Kanchana Wijesekara says releasing diesel to the market has been limited as the priority is given to providing diesel for power generation due to the breakdown at the Norochcholai power plant.

Delivering a statement in the parliament today (May 05), the lawmaker assured that adequate stocks of petrol are available in the country at present.

Close to 40,000 metric tonnes of petrol supplied under the Indian credit line reached Colombo on Wednesday (May 05).

Addressing the recent media reports which claimed that the government has halted releasing fuel, Minister Wijesekara dismissed them as false.

He is hopeful that the situation concerning petrol supply will return to normal in about three days.

“However, we have an issue regarding diesel supply,” the minister said explaining that there are despite having enough diesel stocks, the priority has to be given to supplying diesel to power plants for power generation.

Minister Wijesekara added that the daily issuance of 4,000 metric tonnes of diesel is now limited to 1,000-1,500 metric tonnes as a result of the breakdown reported in the Norochcholai power plant.

He said the government had to take a policy decision whether queues should be reduced by supplying the available fuel consignments to filling stations or continuing rolling power interruptions of 3 hours and 20 minutes without extending them.

“We can supply as many diesel stocks as possible to filling station as we want, but then we will have to extend the power cuts to seven to eight hours,” he pointed out.

The minister urged the general public not to hoard diesel.

Speaking further, the lawmaker said the Ceylon Petroleum Corporation, even after revising the fuel prices, is supplying fuel to the general public while incurring losses.

Accordingly, the Ceylon Petroleum Corporation and Lanka IOC hope to introduce a fuel pricing formula in the coming days. It is expected to be tabled in the meeting of the Cabinet of Ministers next week.

“We are not trying to cover the entire loss but to minimize it in some way. We are able to settle payments for the fuel consignments arriving here, only if we minimize the loss. We assume that the petroleum corporation would require at least USD 550 million to maintain this supply chain if it continues at current prices until next December,” he added.