The Ceylon Petroleum Corporation (CPC) has commenced manufacturing of Lubricant Oil for the first time in the history, Petroleum Minister Mahinda Amaraweera said.
He said the annual local lubricant oil consumption in the country exceeded 65,000 Kiloliters.
“However, until now, we continued to import the required lubricant oil and therefore a large amount of foreign exchange flowed out of the country,” the minister said.
He said the CPC had manufactured lubricant oil on several occasions previously but the process was stopped due to various reasons.
Meanwhile, the CPC senior officials had informed the minister about the initiation of lubricant oil at their newly built high-tech plant.
“With the use of new machines, the CPC would be able to manufacture lubricant oil with a capacity of 33 Kilolitres annually,” the minister said.
He also said nearly Rs.30 billion had been spent to import 65,000 Kilolitres of lubricant oil last year.
The manufactured oil would be sent to the market under the brand name “CEYPETCO”.
“The manufacturing capacity is at seven per cent at the moment and it would be increased to 20 per cent by the end of this year,” the minister added. (Chaturanga Samarawickrama)
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