Sri Lankan Petroleum Minister Susil Premajayantha said Tuesday that Sri Lanka planned to cut imports of Iranian crude oil by three cargoes, each of 135,000 mt, before the end of its current contract with the National Iranian Oil Company in September.
Sri Lanka's only refinery at Sapugaskanda receives 14 tankers annually, of which Iran supplies 13 and Saudi Arabia one.
Premajayantha told Platts on the sidelines of a gas and LNG conference in Abu Dhabi that the refinery's current term contract expires in September.
Sri Lanka has already received six of the cargoes from Iran and will cut three cargoes from the balance before the end of the year. The cuts would translate into 3 million barrels that would have to be replaced.
"We will have to reduce our imports to comply with the US sanctions," he said.
Platts
