Foreign Secy visits key oil tank farms in Lanka’s Trincomalee

Colombo, October 3

Foreign Secretary Harsh Vardhan Shringla on Sunday visited the World War II-era oil storage facility in the strategically advantaged port district of Trincomalee in Sri Lanka’s east coast, which has been a key bilateral economic partnership link for decades.

Trincomalee Harbour, one of the deepest natural harbours in the world, was developed by the British during the World War II.

Since 2003, the Lanka IOC, the Sri Lankan subsidiary of India’s oil major Indian Oil Corporation (IOC), has the leasing rights of 99 tanks at the facility for a period of 35 years for an annual payment of USD 1,00,000.

According to the Indian High Commission, the Lanka IOC briefed Shringla on developments at the tank farm “and the possibilities for further strengthening India and Sri Lanka energy partnership to enhance Colombo’s energy security”.

The Indian mission also tweeted pictures of Shringla at the Trincomalee oil tank farm.

His visit to the site assumes significance as oil sector trade unions in Sri Lanka have demanded that tanks be brought under the control of the state fuel entity Ceylon Petroleum Corporation (CPC). As per the agreement, the IOC was also given one-third share of the Sri Lankan Government entity, Petroleum Storage Limited. However, the CPC trade unions had been pressing for the takeover of the tanks.

Initially, the CPC wanted to develop 25 tanks by investing USD 25-30 million.

Shringla arrived in Sri Lanka on Saturday on a four-day visit during which he will meet the top leadership, including President Gotabaya Rajapaksa and Prime Minister Mahinda Rajapaksa, and review the bilateral ties between India and the island nation. — PTI

Pays obeisance at ‘Tooth’ temple

Colombo: Foreign Secretary Harsh Vardhan Shringla on Sunday prayed for the well-being and prosperity of the Indian and Sri Lankan people and for reinforcing their centuries-old bonds as he visited the historic Temple of the Sacred Tooth Relic, the foremost shrine of Sri Lanka’s Buddhist majority in Kandy city. Sri Dalada Maligawa or the Temple of the Sacred Tooth Relic in the country’s Central Province is a world-renowned place of worship, where the left canine tooth of Gautama Buddha is enshrined. PTI