Ceylon Petroleum Corporation unions are threatening to strike work next week, protesting against a new refinery project to be built with private sector help.
The government is to sign a deal with US based Global Energy Industrial Operations to expand existing refinery capacity at Sapugaskanda to 150,000 barrels.
Cabinet approval for the project was granted just this week, the government said on Thursday, taking four to five years to build.
In the newly minted deal, the company will finance the US$ 800 mn refinery project and manage it for a 30 year period before transferring it back to state owned Ceypetco.
Unions say the deal is unfavourable because it mandates Ceypetco to buy back 80 percent of the new refinery’s production at world market prices, Lakshman Ananda, Secretary of the Jathika Sevaka Sangamaya (JSS), said.
Unions also say the project allows use of Ceypetco’s existing infrastructure and will not allow a private refinery project to be built on state land.
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