The Ceylon Petroleum Corporation (CPC) is to send back a tanker carrying 10,000 metric tons of petrol from a Singaporean company which had been found to be substandard during tests at the corporation laboratories, CPC chairman Sirisena Amarasekera told adaderanabiz.

Amarasekera added that this tanker is currently docked at the Colombo port and the 20,000 metric tons of diesel it had brought have already been accepted by the CPC since it had met the specified standards.

“Returning substandard fuel is nothing new. For the past one year or so we have been testing the fuel before being loaded for export in foreign countries. The fuel cargo is allowed to be sent to Sri Lanka only after confirmation of its standard. This fuel cargo is again tested on arrival in Sri Lanka. However, though earlier these laboratory tests were carried out by a single company now they are carried out by two companies.

“If the fuel cargo fails the initial test in Sri Lanka, then a second test is carried out. Only if this second test fails that this stock of fuel is returned to the company from which it had been purchased,” Amarasekera explained further.

There have been strong allegations in the recent past that imported substandard fuels have affected vehicles in Sri Lanka, giving rise to wide debates in the country.