Shipping company demands Rs. 89 mn demurrage charges

8 August 2014 02:40 pm

Ceylon Petroleum Corporation (CPC) Jathika Sewaka Sangamaya Branch Secretary Ananda Palitha said today an Indonesian shipping company had demanded Rs. 89 million from the Ceylon Petroleum Corporation (CPC) as demurrage and urged the CPC  to reveal whether it was going to pay it, as it claimed earlier that such a fee would not have to be paid.

“The government earlier claimed that CPC would not have to pay a late fee and said insurance companies would pay, if there was any late fee. But as we are aware, those companies will not pay them. It is the poor people who have to pay them and are burdened due to these unnecessary losses,” Mr. Palitha said.

He said another two shipping companies were preparing to send letters to the CPC demanding demurrage by next week.

Mr. Palitha said the pipe-line carrying crude oil to the Sapugaskanda oil refinery which broke down on May 24 had not been repaired completely as yet despite being replaced with an old pipe-line temporarily.

“The pipe-line ordered from a private company has not been received yet and the process of pumping crude oil with the old pipe-line has been very slow,” he said.

Mr. Palitha said the Sapugaskanda refinery was not operating at its full capacity even though it had resumed operations on July 20.

“The oil storages at the Sapugaskanda refinery are full by now and it will take more time to clear the storages as the refinery is not operating at full capacity. This will result in the oil tankers having to anchor for more time to unload crude oil and thus will have to pay demurrage,” he said. (Ajith Siriwardana)