Fuel station owners affiliated with Sinopec, RM Parks and Lanka IOC staged a silent protest outside the World Trade Centre in Colombo on Tuesday (10), claiming that the companies were not supplying adequate quantities of fuel to their filling stations.
The protesters later gathered outside the Presidential Secretariat and handed over a letter outlining their concerns. They also sought to submit complaints to the Ceylon Petroleum Corporation (CPC), the Chinese Embassy and the Indian High Commission, requesting their intervention to resolve the distribution issues.
The station owners warned that insufficient fuel supplies were making it increasingly difficult to maintain operations and could cause inconvenience to consumers.
They also questioned the existing fuel pricing mechanism, claiming that private fuel companies were restricting supplies because they could not sell fuel profitably at the prevailing prices. The protesters called for an independent authority to regulate fuel pricing and ensure greater transparency in the pricing formula.
Meanwhile, CPC Chairman D. J. Rajakaruna and the Secretary to the Ministry of Energy addressed the dispute while responding to questions from journalists following an event in Colombo.
Officials said private fuel companies had raised concerns about financial losses under the current pricing structure. They explained that companies were allowed to adjust certain fuel prices within the limits set by the pricing formula, noting that some operators had already increased the prices of Octane 95 petrol and Super Diesel.
However, officials acknowledged that the government could not directly control the quantities of fuel distributed by private operators under the existing arrangements.
The CPC, meanwhile, is taking steps to maintain adequate supplies at its own filling stations to minimise inconvenience to the public.
Officials also said the government would examine the legal provisions governing private fuel operators if the distribution problems continued.
The dispute comes amid concerns over reduced fuel supplies from private operators. However, the CPC has maintained that Sri Lanka has sufficient fuel stocks and is not facing an overall fuel shortage.
