The LIOC today rejected the ‘false rumour’ circulating that the LIOC has received contaminated Petrol at Trincomalee. However the Ceylon Petroleum Corporation (CPC) yesterday said that a special inspection is being carried out on a consignment of petrol imported by Lanka IOC to the Trincomalee Harbour.

 “We understand that a completely baseless and false rumor is getting circulated that LIOC is receiving contaminated Petrol at Trincomalee, the LIOC said in a press release.

The release added, “LIOC has been generally importing petroleum products for discharge at Colombo and Trincomalee. The ship discharging at Trincomalee has carried 26750 MT of Petrol out of which 10450 MT of petrol was initially discharged at Colombo after getting complete specification test done at CPSTL Lab after confirming that the  product is meeting the specifications. After completing the discharge at Colombo, the ship has now been sent to Trincomalee for discharge of balance quantity of 16300 MT of Petrol.  Even though the product was meeting the full specification at Colombo, as a measure of abundant precaution, testing was again carried out at Trincomalee and after ensuring that the product was meeting specification, discharge of Petrol has started.

We would like to assure all our customers that Lanka IOC is committed to supply petroleum products meeting the specification.”

It was reported yesterday that 16,000 metric tonnes of petrol brought down by Lanka IOC had reached China Bay; quality of the fuel has sparked controversy.

CPC Managing Director Susantha Silva said the unloading of the fuel shipment has been prohibited without special tests.

The CPC added that substandard fuel will not be allowed to be brought into the country. 

Meanwhile industry trade unions claim that initial laboratory tests have confirmed that the petrol is substandard.

Last month 5,000 metric tonnes of substandard diesel imported by Lanka IOC was rejected by Ceylon Petroleum Storage Terminals Limited (CPSTL).