Fourth crude oil ship in Colombo, but unable to unload

11 July 2014 07:24 pm

A ship laden with 90,000 MT of crude oil had arrived at the Colombo Harbour on Thursday mounting the number of anchored crude oil ships to four and accumulating the unloaded crude oil in them to 290,000 MTs, sources said.

It was revealed that three ships that arrived on May 20, June 10 and 18 were already anchored without being unable to unload the crude oil due to a broken buoy in the supply pipeline since May 23.

“Only 20,000 MT of crude oil were unloaded from the first ship on May 23 and the buoy had broken down leaving 70,000 MTs in the ship. Two more ships arrived with 90,000 MTs and 40,000 MTs and the buoy was not replaced and by Thursday another ship had arrived with 90,000 MTs,” sources said.

They said the Ceylon Petroleum Corporation (CPC) will have to pay a fee of US$ 30,000 per day for each ship after the first week from its arrival, for anchoring without unloading crude oil.    

However Petroleum Industries Minister Anura Priyadarsha Yapa earlier said that there would not be fuel shortage in the country. (Sanath Desmond and Lahiru Pothmulla)