Govt. to upgrade refinery to use non-Iran oil

Sri Lanka will refurbish its only refinery, now designed to refine mainly Iranian light crude, to process many other grades to enable it to face a decline in Iranian crude imports after US sanctions come into effect by end June, the Petroleum Industries Minister said on Friday.

“This (refinery) has old technology. After the refurbishment with the new technology, we can use many crude oils,” Petroleum Industries Minister Susil Premajayantha told Reuters in an interview.

“It is not going to cost more than $ 500 million. We are in the process of finding some donors or lenders.”

At present, Sri Lanka uses 93 per cent Iran crude at its decades-old refinery, but the Government has announced it will reduce this up to 20 per cent due to the US sanctions on Iran crude imports.