Petrol Crisis Update: Three days needed to restore fuel distribution- Arjuna

Three more days will be needed to fully restore the fuel situation in the country, Minister of Petroleum Resources Development, Arjuna Ranatunga said.

He told a press conference at CPC  that a shipment was due on November 8 and by the following day the distribution will be normalised/

He said there were no issues about Diesel as they had sufficient stocks for the next two weeks, but admitted that some of the sheds had stopped selling Diesel as well.

The Minister was questioned as why the CPC failed to bring additional stocks.

"We usually import oil when the available stocks are down. In this case what happened was stocks of the LIOC were below standards and we rejected it. There was pressure on me to accept the stocks, but I refused. Thereafter they promissed to get another shipment before the end of the month, but that did not arrive', he said.

He said inquiries will be made to look into what happened, but the priority was to distribute the available fuel to the people and normalise the situation.

'Also due to panic buying the stocks were finishing soon. Also there was people buying fuel into bottles and cans and selling them in the blackmarket', he said.

He said they were currently supplying some 2,500 mt of petrol which is usually the required daily stock, but due to panic buying the stocks were not sufficient.

'We have 10,000 Mt available with us now', he said.