Sri Lanka shuts only oil refinery for 50 days amid severe dollar crisis

Sri Lanka on Monday temporarily shut down its only oil refinery for 50 days following the non availability of crude oil supplies due to the ongoing severe foreign exchange crisis in the country.

“The Sapugaskanda refinery will be closed for 50 days from today,” energy minister Udaya Gammanpila told reporters here.

He, however, assured that the refinery’s closure would not cause a fuel shortage in the island nation.

Gammanpila said the decision to shut down the refinery was taken in the wake of the ongoing foreign exchange crisis in the local economy.

Once we overcome the dollar crisis, the crude oil imports would resume and the refinery would restart operations, he said.