Hambantota International Port Group (HIP) and Intertek Lanka (Pvt) Ltd on Monday (24 May) entered into a 10-year partnership to build a modern petroleum testing laboratory to provide assurance, testing, inspection and certification services in Sri Lanka.
A virtual ceremony was held where both parties signed an agreement to bring forward the development which will have Intertek establish a testing facility for fuel oil and marine diesel, including IMO 2020 compliant bunker fuels, within Hambantota port.
Attending the virtual signing ceremony were HIPG CEO Johnson Liu, COO Tissa Wickramasinghe along with Intertek Regional Director Trade James Ignatovich, Regional Director Sales and Technical Support Stephen Harrington, Regional Managing Director Sandeep Das, Country Managing Director of Intertek Sri Lanka Priyantha De Silva and Regional CFO Ajay Kapoor from Intertek.
“This will be a great value addition to HIP’s offering and as we add more services for the shipping network on the main east-west shipping lanes, Hambantota Port will take its rightful place as a global maritime location,” said Tissa Wickramasinghe, COO, HIPG.
“HIPG has great potential in energy services due to its location in the Indian Ocean rim, where 50% of the world’s maritime oil is traded. Our oil fuel bunker, LPG and future LNG operations are sure to cement HIP’s position as an energy hub in the region,” said Johnson Liu, CEO of HIPG.
The new lab will provide job opportunities for the local Sri Lankan community and increase the standard of laboratory operations of the country.
“Petroleum testing is an important activity in port related services such as testing marine products, bunkering and bunker related inspections,” said Priyantha De Silva, Country Managing Director of Intertek Lanka (Pvt) Ltd.
“Intertek helps to ensure that products meet quality, health, environmental safety and social accountability standards for virtually any market around the world, with our extensive global accreditations, recognitions and agreements. We look forward to working with the Hambantota Port which is ideally located to serve the east-west shipping routes.”
Source : Manifold Times
