Minister of Power and Energy Kanchana Wijesekera has held a discussion with the first two groups of owners and management of fuel stations that will be made available to new suppliers.

Taking to Twitter, Minister Wijesekera stated that the discussion was held this morning.The minister further stated that 450 fuel stations have been categorized into 3 separate groups of 150 that will be made available to the new foreign fuel service operators. “The fuel station owners and management were briefed in this regard and discussions were held about their dealership allocation to new suppliers, the categorizing mechanism used, new agreements, pricing formulas, benefits of new suppliers, dealer margins, and Government policy and regulations,” he added.

The discussions are being held after the government announced in April that China’s Sinopec, United Petroleum of Australia, and RM Parks of USA are slated to enter Sri Lanka’s fuel retail market under a collaboration with Shell PLC.It was reported at the time that they will be given licences with a validity of 20 years to import, store and distribute fuel in Sri Lanka, while they will also be provided 150 CPC fuel stations under the scheme.