Sri Lanka Government invites Lanka IOC to build refinery in Trincomalee

Kanchana Wijesekera

Sri Lanka’s Power and Energy Minister Kanchana Wijesekera said the government has invited the Lanka IOC (LIOC) company to set up Sri Lanka’s second oil refinery in Trincomalee.

He made these remarks during an event held in Colombo on Saturday to celebrate 20 years of Lanka IOC operations.

Lanka IOC and State-run Ceylon Petroleum Corporation in January 2022 entered into a joint venture to collectively develop the Trincomalee oil tank farm.

Under the Memorandum of Understanding signed with the Government of Sri Lanka for the next 50 years, the two parties will jointly refurbish 61 of the 99 tanks at the farm while 24 will be developed by CPC and 14 by LIOC.

Meanwhile, Minister Wijesekera also said Sri Lanka is actively pursuing to connect its power grid with India.

“With the President’s vision and advice, we hope to explore the possibility of grid connectivity, connecting India with the Sri Lankan grid,” Wijesekera noted.

He said Sri Lanka brings a lot of renewable energy options to the table and hence grid connectivity between the two countries will be mutually beneficial.