The Sapugaskanda oil refinery which had been closed down for over a month, resumed operations today with taking delivery of crude oil unloaded through the repaired hose, the Petroleum Industries Minister Anura Priyadharshana Yapa said.

Minister Yapa addressing a press conference held in Colombo said: “We have replaced the broken tube line with an old one, which had been abandoned for about 12 years. And now we can pump the crude oil from the three ships, each of which carries 90,000 MT of crude oil, and the pumping will be completed within ten days.”

Minister Yapa said that the Ceylon Petroleum Corporation had ordered a new hose from a reputed tube manufacturing company after it was approved by our technical experts and added that no ship was turned back due to the breakdown of the buoy and the connected pipeline and assured that sufficient stock of fuel was there to cater to the needs of the country.