Authorities are investigating a hurriedly imported stock of gasoline into the country that may have led to a contaminated fuel leak into the open market, wrecking a large number of vehicles while scaring other motorists from filling up.
A stock of 20,000 tons from Singapore in mid-July is at the centre of investigations at the moment, Petroleum Minister Susil Premajayantha told the Sunday Times.
The stock was brought in a hurry to stave off an impending fuel shortage due to an interruption in supply for some eight days at the main oil installation in Sapugaskanda owing to a technical breakdown and a delay in the scheduled shipment around the same time, he said.
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| Many vehicles have been damaged due to the contaminated fuel.
Pic by Sanka Vidanagama |
He added that investigations will also centre on the vehicles used for the distribution of fuel throughout the country, to check for adulteration during its transport. “Bulk of the distribution is by private vehicles hired by the State, and there have been earlier detections of malpractices such as adulteration,” Mr. Premajayantha added.
He said that the suspect stock from Singapore had been exhausted while a fresh supply had entered the country in the middle of the week. “I think, for now, the problem has been solved to a large extent,” he said.
However, he said that a probe will centre on the filling stations. “There is a great possibility that some shed operators had scraped the bottom of their storage tanks, whereby, sludge settled at the bottom would have been sucked in,”the Minister said.
A senior official of Ceylon Petroleum Storage Terminals Limited (CPSTL) said that the responsibility has to be borne by the Ceylon Petroleum Corporation (CPC) which is responsible for the fuel procurements.
“Our job is to feed the market, and, as far as we are concerned, nothing happened over here,” CPSTL General Manager M.R.W. de Zoysa told the Sunday Times.
Lanka Indian Oil Company (LIOC) Managing Director Suresh Kumar, however, said that the main problem may have originated from the storage tanks at the CPSTL terminals. “During the shortage, the CPSTL would have most likely dipped into the lower end of the stocks and, as a result, sludge and other particles would have been sucked into the fuel supply,” he said.
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| This filling station hand at Kiribathgoda sits idle as motorists are wary of pumping fuel.
Pic by Mangala Weerasekra |
“As far as the LIOC is concerned, the stocks are stored with the CPSTL, so the responsibility is in Kolonnawa, and nowhere else,” Mr. Kumar added.
Meanwhile, reports from several parts of the country indicated that a large number of motorists had been hit by the contamination, with most of them complaining of busted petrol pumps that had to be replaced at considerable costs.
Prasad Ramesh, a seafarer, and currently on home leave, said his car went bust on Friday morning, when he attempted to start up the engine, a day after he had filled up at a LIOC outlet.
“After eight attempts, I finally called in an auto mechanic who said the petrol pump had packed up and will have to be replaced. It cost me Rs. 6,900 for the replacement and repair,” Ramesh, a resident from Panadura, said.
A garage operator in Ambatenna in Kandy, said that, over the past two days, he had attended to some 10 motorcycles, most of them with busted fuel pumps.
Reports reaching the Sunday Times also indicated that the bulk of the vehicles affected were motorcycles, three-wheelers of Indian and Malaysian manufacture. |
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