Ceylon Petroleum to Shut Refinery Starting January

By Sophie Tan

Dec. 26 (Bloomberg) -- Ceylon Petroleum Corp., Sri Lanka's state oil company, will shut its 50,000 barrel-a-day refinery for six weeks starting Jan. 21 to carry out routine maintenance, a company official said.

Ceylon Petroleum will boost imports in the next two months to cover the shortfall in production, Sarath Kotahachi, an import manager, said by phone today.

Sri Lanka, which imports all its oil, secured a $700 million loan from Iran to double refinery capacity and reduce the drain on foreign exchange reserves, Minister of Petroleum A.H.M. Fowzie said on Nov. 30. The refinery expansion, funded with a 10-year Iranian credit, may take about four years to complete, Fowzie said.

The refinery, the nation's only plant, supplies more than 60 percent of domestic oil-product demand and is located in the western province of Sapugaskanda.
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