As Sri Lanka is trying to emerge from its worst currency crisis, the Island Nation’s Prime Minister Ranil Wickremesinghe informed the parliament that the country is in need of funds to pay a ship carrying Siberian Light Crude, which is anchored off Colombo Port.
The ship Nissos Delos has been waiting since May 01, he said. “It has 90,000 metric tonnes of Siberian Light Crude,” Prime Minister Wickremesinghe said on May 19. “There is still no money. We will find the money.” Sri Lanka is in the worst currency crisis created by the island’s intermediate regime central bank which operates a unstable peg called a flexible exchange rate backed by flexible monetary policy were flexibility has subverted rules eventually driving the country to default.
The country is now facing severe forex shortages after the peg collapsed due to money printing, which has resulted in fuel shortages and power outages. “If we use this oil for power stations we can use diesel for other activities,” Prime Minister Wickremesinghe said.
Sri Lanka’s refinery can process only light crudes. The aged refinery has a low output of light distillates such as petrol, kerosene and diesel and high share of furnace oil as it lacks the technology to crack longer hydrocarbon strands.
