Sri Lanka Passes Law Allowing Foreign Firms in Domestic Oil Retailing Business

The island nation of 22 million people has faced severe shortages of oil and gas for months this year amid a foreign exchange crisis, resulting in unprecedented public unrest in July.

Sri Lanka's parliament on Tuesday approved legislation allowing foreign firms from oil-producing nations to import and sell fuel on the domestic market.

The legislation -- the Petroleum Products (Special Provisions) Amendment Bill -- ended the duopoly of state-owned Ceylon Petroleum Corporation (CPC), controlling 80% of the fuel market, and Lanka IOC, a unit of the Indian Oil Corporation.

It will also save crucial foreign exchange reserves that compounded the economic crisis earlier this year.

"Earlier this year people were dying in fuel lines and people were waiting in queues for days, but we didn’t have the foreign exchange to import sufficient amounts of fuel," Kanchana Wijesekera, power and energy minister, told parliament.

Sri Lanka introduced rationing, among other severe measures, amid the absence of required oil at fuel stations during the worst of the crisis.

"Due to the country's financial situation, we cannot afford to purchase the fuel that we need. We have had to limit imports. Sri Lanka is in the middle of a serious energy crisis," the minister added.

As per government estimates, Sri Lanka needs at least $600 million every month to meet the oil and gas requirement of the country. Due to the foreign exchange crisis, the country can only afford to spend about $350 million, the minister underlined.

Oil firms from India, China, Saudi Arabia, Qatar, the US, and Russia, among others, have reportedly applied for licenses to begin importing and selling fuel on the Sri Lankan market.