It’s Official

January 9, 2007 (LBO) – Lanka IOC, a unit of Fortune 500 Indian Oil Corp. has laid the foundation stone on its upcoming lubricant blending plant over weekend, after the Sri Lankan government settle settled 5.16 billion rupees in unpaid subsidy bills last Friday, officials said. Lanka IOC is 75 percent-owned by Indian Oil Corp., with the remaining 25 percent listed on the Colombo Stock Exchange. The 5-million dollar blending plant, will come up in Trincomalee where LIOC also has an oil storage facility which was used by the British during World War II.

With an annual production capacity of 18,000 metric tones, LIOC expects to commission the plant in June, its Managing Director K Ramakrishnan told LBO.

"The foundation stone was laid by Investment Minister Rohitha Bogollagama during his visit to our Trincomalee oil installation on Sunday," he said.

The local lube market, estimated at about six billion rupees (60 million dollars), is dominated by ChevronTexaco whose local operation is called Caltex Lanka Lubricants Ltd.

The balance is split between LIOC, Exxon Mobil/Esso, Valvoline, Shell, and British Petroleum/Castrol.

LIOC has a 32 percent share of the retail fuel market and 16 percent of the lubricant pie since they began operations in February 2003 afte