By Shihar Aneez and Ranga SirilalCOLOMBO |
(Reuters) - Sri Lanka may be a minnow in the oil world, but a near total reliance on Iranian crude imports means it has more reason than most to find a way to avoid being caught in the clutches of U.S. sanctions.
The island's only refinery -- the 50,000 barrels-a-day Sapugaskanda refinery -- is almost entirely reliant on imports of Iran's crude. Switching to alternatives is not easy because the refinery has been configured to handle Iran's high-sulphur and high-density crude oil.
"We don't have any other alternative than getting oil from Iran," Petroleum Resources Minister Susil Premajayantha told Reuters. "Our main problem is that you can't use all types of crude here for our machines." Full Story>>>
