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Energy Minister announces steps to take back Trinco oil tank farm from Indians

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By Saman Indrajith

Energy Minister Udaya Gammanpila, on Tuesday (6), told Parliament that the government was taking steps to reclaim the Trincomalee oil tank farm under the Indian Oil Company.

Responding to a question raised by Ratnapura District SJB MP Hesha Withanage, the Minister said that the government had commenced talks with the IOC and Indian government to acquire tanks underutilised by the LIOC and did not want to go into further details as revealing some facts would be detrimental to the govenrment’s plan to take back the farm that had 99 tanks.

The oil tank farm at China Bay had been acquired by Sri Lanka during Bandaranaike’s rule paying a sum of 250,000 sterling pounds to the UK, the Minister said. Originally it had 101 tanks and of them only 99 was in a usable state.

The UNP government in 2003 had leased them to the LIOC for 35 years keeping 25 percent ownership rights for the Sri Lankan government. “The complex was leased out to LIOC but even after 18 years it utilizes only 15 tanks. We hope to get back the others.”

The storage capacity of the Trincomalee Complex is one million tonnes. The oil tank farm is adjacent to the Trincomalee Harbour, which is one of the deepest natural harbours in the world.

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