Lanka IOC to expand China Bay tank farm

Indian Oil Corporation’s Sri Lanka unit, Lanka IOC, plans to invest US$35 million for the expansion of an oil tank farm in the eastern port of Trincomalee. “We want to use it to store petroleum products for both domestic sale and export,” Lanka IOC Managing Director K.R. Suresh Kumar said. The company’s tank farm is the largest tank farm situated between the Middle East and Singapore, and has a total of 99 tanks, each with a capacity of 12,000 kiloliters. Since it took over the operations of the China Bay tank farm 10 years ago in 2002, Lanka IOC has invested a total of nearly US$11.2 million, Kumar said. “We will revamp the tank farm in a phased manner. In the initial phase a rough estimate of the investment needed is about US$35 million,” he added. “Every year some tanks will be restored.” The company also invested US$5 million to build a lube blending plant with a capacity of 18,000 metric tons a year to manufacture lubricants in Sri Lanka. (April 9, 2012)