Russia refuses government’s fuel request!

Minister of Power and Energy Kanchana Wijesekera said that when he personally met the Russian Ambassador, he had said that fuel loans would not be provided through the Russian government.

He said this in response to a question raised by MP Vasudeva Nanayakkara in parliament today.

Wijesekara further said, “I personally met with the Russian Ambassador and he gave me a list of four companies. The Russian government has said that they would not engage in government-to-government fuel transactions. He also said that the Russian Government does not provide fuel loans. He clearly said to write to these four companies and state our requirements. But the only issue is that if these Russian companies agree, it would be without any tender procedure. They will agree to what they can supply. If we agree to the rates, then we could enter into long-term agreements with them without following a tender procedure.
This was the response that was given to us. We have written to all four of these companies. Two of the companies responded and acknowledged that they had received our letters and said they would give us the required information. However, so far, no one had told us that they would give us a barrel of oil at $35.

The fuel purchasing is done through a committee, but the officials of this committee have received any proposal for fuel supply at 35%, 50% or even 10% lesser as you claim. We have received around 90 proposals where they have come up with various mechanisms to supply fuel.

However, upon studying these proposals, some of them are totally impossible to do. Some say they can supply us the fuel and when we tell them this is how we can pay you, they back off. With the country’s financial situation, there is only one way to pay for fuel and that is to obtain long-term loans.”