Oct 30, Colombo: The opposition United National Party of Sri Lanka says the closure of the Sapugaskanda oil refinery has resulted in the country incurring a loss of Rs. 45 million per day.

UNP Spokesperson, parliamentarian Gayantha Karunathilaka blamed the closure of the refinery on the inefficiencies of the government resulting in losses amounting to millions of rupees every day.

The Petroleum Minister Susil Premajayantha said the oil refinery has been closed due to the lack of crude oil following the sanctions imposed on Iran by the United States.

Karunathilaka noted that the refinery had been shut down on five occasions this year and has not been properly repaired.

According to Karunathilaka, the government after claiming it would not carry out emergency oil purchases has now decided to continue with such purchases from Saudi Arabia and Oman.

Meanwhile, the trade unions affiliated with the petroleum sector say that the petroleum authority Ceylon Petroleum Corporation (CPC) would lose millions of rupees when restarting the Sapugaskanda oil refinery.

Head of the JSS trade union at the CPC, Ananda Palitha has said the Corporation would lose close to Rs. 5 million when re-commencing operations at the refinery.

The Sapugaskanda oil refinery is to re-commence operations in a few weeks after importing the new stock of crude oil.

CPC officials have told the media that two ships are scheduled to arrive in the country with new stocks of refined oil next month.

One ship is to arrive from Oman with 80,000 metric tons of oil by November 08 while another ship is to arrive from Saudi Arabia with 135,000 metric tons of oil.