Trinco Oil Tank Farm agreement signed; Sri Lanka will control 85 out of 99 tanks

by Zulfick Farzan 06-01-2022 | 9:48 PM

COLOMBO (News 1st); The agreements to develop Trinco Oil Tank Farm were signed on Thursday (6), said Energy Ministry Udaya Gammanpila.

The Office of the Minister of Energy in a statement late Thursday (6) said that a majority of the tanks at the Trinco Oil Tank Farm which were under Lanka IOC will now be under the Ceylon Petroleum Corporation as a development project.

The statement noted that the agreement signed in 2003 with thus be terminated and the Trincomalee Oil Tank Farm will be leased for a period of 50 years to the following three entities.

1. Ceylon Petroleum Corporation - 24 tanks

2. Trinco Petroleum Terminal - 61 tanks

3. Lanka IOC - 14 tanks

The statement said that 85 of the 99 tanks will be under the control of the Ceylon Petroleum Corporation.

The new agreement will be presented to the Cabinet of Ministers on the 10th of January and will be tabled in parliament on the 18th of January.

The agreement will be available to the public on the 11th of January via the CPC official website.

The Trinco Oil Tank Farm was built in the 1920s by the British who were ruling Sri Lanka at the time.

The Ministry of Energy said that 100 tanks were constructed across an areas of 827 acres and each tank can hold 10,000 MT of fuel.

On the 9th of April 1942 one of the tanks was destroyed in a Japanese Air Raid.

It added that as per article 2(iii) on the letters exchanged by the President of Sri Lanka and the Prime Minister of India on the 29th of July 1987, it was agreed to develop the Trincomalee Oil Tank Farm as a joint venture between Sri Lanka and India.

However, on the 7th of February 2003, an agreement was signed to lease all 99 tanks to Lanka IOC for a period of 35 years.

Yet, Lanka IOC had only made use of 14 tanks while the rest were decaying with time.

The statement went on to note that an agreement was reached to lease all 99 tanks for 99 years through the MOU between Malik Samarawickrema-Sushma Swaraj in 2017.

The Ministry of Energy said that the latest agreement was the result of 16 months of negotiating with India.