Sri Lanka, which is suffering from the worst economic crisis due to its default state, is planning to expand imports of Russian crude oil to secure cheap crude oil.
According to AFP and Al Jazeera on the 27th (local time), Sri Lanka’s electricity and energy minister Kanchana Wijisekera said two government ministers will visit Moscow, Russia, to discuss ways to purchase additional Russian oil.
“Two ministers will go to Russia, and I plan to go to Qatar to see if discount conditions are possible,” Minister Wijisekera said at a press conference.
Sri Lanka imported 90,000 tonnes of Russian crude last month through its oil broker Coral Energy in Dubai in the face of a severe oil shortage.
Since then, there have been calls in the political circles that the Sri Lanka authorities should directly negotiate with the Russian government to buy more crude oil, and the ministers’ emergency dispatch to Russia was decided.
Earlier on the 25th, the Sri Lankan government announced that it had virtually run out of gasoline and diesel stocks due to delays in new shipments. Authorities apologized to the public, saying there are less than two days left in stock to meet the demand for essential national services.
Sri Lanka’s state-run oil company CPC said on Wednesday it would raise diesel and gasoline prices by 15 percent and 22 percent, respectively. This year, diesel prices have nearly quadrupled and gasoline prices have nearly tripled in Sri Lanka during the economic crisis.
