According to Central Bank records, it was during the administration of President Ranasinghe Premadasa that initiatives were taken to dismantle and sell off the production capacity of the Ceylon Petroleum Corporation and sell 19 government institutions between February 1990 and June 1993.
By 1989, the capacity of the refinery belonging to the Ceylon Petroleum Corporation was 2,244,000 metric tons. In 1990, there was the same refining capacity; by 1991, the capacity had increased to 2,486,096 metric tons. However, by 1992, that capacity had fallen to 1,422,800 metric tons. That is a breakdown of the production capacity of 1,063,296 metric tons. By 1994, that capacity had only grown to 2,029,300 metric tons.
In no other year has that capacity been increased
beyond 2,029,300 metric tons. The breakdown in this situation is the refinery’s
capacity of 2,244,000 metric tons in 1989. Although it was increased to
2,486,096 metric tons, the continued controls were aimed at selling off the Petroleum Corporation.
During the first administration of Mahinda Rajapaksa, an agreement was even reached with the then-president of Iran in 2007 for the reforms to increase the oil refining capacity significantly. However, it was not implemented, and by now, the measures to break the state of bankruptcy were followed by every existing government.
