Update II "If they are not using, or if they are not going to utilize it fully we are going to negotiate with them and ask them to give it," he told a reporters Thursday.
Rambukwelle said the government will negotiate using provisions in the agreement with Lanka IOC to take the tanks back if only a few tanks were being used.
Rambukwelle said state-run Ceylon Petroleum Corporation could use the tanks.
"The new development program of CPC warrants it," he said.
Lanka IOC Chief executive Subodh Dakwale said he was not aware of any retaking of tanks.
Lanka IOC was sold a third of Sri Lanka's oil distribution business and leased a World War II British built tank farm in the Trincomalee port in 2003.
The company is using 15 tanks in the lower tank farm.
In the upper tank farm of 84, two tanks are being readied for use for bitumen with a 17 million US dollar investment.