Cash-strapped Sri Lanka gets Russian oil to ease shortages

Cash-strapped Sri Lanka gets Russian oil to ease shortages

Colombo is also in talks with Moscow to arrange direct supplies of crude, coal, diesel and petrol

By AFP Published: Sat 28 May 2022, 4:02 PM

Cash-strapped Sri Lanka took delivery Saturday of Russian oil — which could soon be subject to a European embargo — to restart operations at the country’s only refinery, the energy minister said.

The island nation is suffering its worst economic meltdown since independence, with shortages of fuel and other vital goods making life miserable for its 22 million people.

The state-run Ceylon Petroleum Corporation (CPC) refinery was shuttered in March in the wake of Sri Lanka’s foreign exchange crunch, which left the government unable to finance crude imports.

The Russian crude delivery had been waiting offshore of the capital Colombo’s port for over a month as the country was unable to raise $75 million to pay for it, energy minister Kanchana Wijesekera said.

Colombo is also in talks with Moscow to arrange direct supplies of crude, coal, diesel and petrol despite US-led sanctions on Russian banks and a diplomatic outcry over Russia’s military operation in Ukraine.

“I have made an official request to the Russian ambassador for direct supplies of Russian oil,” Wijesekera told reporters in Colombo.

“Crude alone will not fulfil