(Insight) –Sri Lanka’s state-owned fuel retailer Ceylon Petroleum Corporation (CPC) has ordered West Texas Intermediate (WTI) crude as it was unable to secure Murban crude shipment, its chairman said.

This island nation is purchasing WTI for the first time for its 50,000 barrel-per-day refinery in Sapugaskanda in 57 years since it was built by Iran in 1969 to refine Iranian light crudes.

Since the U.S. sanctions imposed on Iran in 2011, the island nation has been unable to import Iran crude and switched to Murban, light crude from the Middle East.

“We in fact changed the crude in our refinery to face such a crisis. We switched WTI (West Texas Intermediate), an American crude,” CPC Chairman D.J.A.S. De S. Rajakaruna told reporters at a media briefing on Saturday (28).

“We brought a (WTI) sample and did all the tests and we are ready to take it. We even have called for two tenders. They could not come because the freight was high,” he said.

As the U.S. Operation Epic Fury expanded in early 2026, the threat of secondary sanctions effectively severed Sri Lanka’s access to its primary feedstock, fearing closure of the refinery and reducing its output to a fraction of its 50,000-barrel-per-day capacity.

This technical mismatch has left the country heavily reliant on the more expensive import of refined fuels rather than crude, further draining foreign exchange reserves.

In tandem with these restrictions, government officials have told Insight that the U.S. has intensified its diplomatic push for Sri Lanka to pivot toward American energy products as a long-term alternative to Middle Eastern and Russian supplies.

While the U.S. Treasury provided a brief 30-day waiver in March 2026 for the purchase of certain stranded shipments, the overarching strategy has been to integrate Sri Lanka into the U.S. energy export network.

However, this transition presents a logistical and financial hurdle; U.S. WTI and other American blends cannot be efficiently processed at Sapugaskanda without a total overhaul of the facility, though the CPC chairman said the refinery was ready to refine WTI.

“The problem is we haven’t refurbished our refinery. So we have limited options of crudes we can refine,” Rajakaruna said.

Sri Lanka is yet to receive a crude shipment since the U.S./Israel attack started on February 28 amid restrictions for ships at Strait of Hormuz.

“We have now floated tenders for WTI including Saharan Blend from Algeria. We are also trying to buy Siberian Crude from Russia. In May, we are getting a WTI shipment. So we don’t have to wait for them (Murban),” Rajakaruna said.

He said Murban crude which is used for the local refinery comes only from Abu Dhabi National Oil Company (ADNOC) in the UAE.

The Sapugaskanda Oil Refinery, Sri Lanka’s only crude oil processing facility, has faced a severe operational crisis due to the tightening of U.S. sanctions on Iranian energy exports.

Architecturally designed to process Iranian Light crude, the refinery’s configuration is incompatible with the sweet or light varieties produced in other regions without significant and costly technical modifications.

The Commission to Investigate Allegations of Bribery or Corruption (CIABOC) yesterday (31) activated its centraliSed electronic system for submitting asset and liability declarations

Director-General of the CIABOC, Ranga Dissanayake, said that with effect from 31 March, all asset and liability declarations must be submitted exclusively through the centralized electronic system.

Explaining further, Director-General Ranga Dissanayake said:

‘‘Under the Anti-Corruption Act, No. 9 of 2023, the Commission-managed centralized electronic system was opened for declarants at 10 a.m. on 31 March at the Bandaranaike International Study Centre in the Bandaranaike Memorial International Conference Hall (BMICH) premises. Once the electronic system becomes operational, officials required to submit asset and liability declarations must do so exclusively through this system.’’

Approval has been granted at the Cabinet meeting held on 27-06-2012 to provide cultivable agricultural lands from the lower Uma Oya valley to 276 farming families in Hali-Ela, Walimada, and Uva Paranagama Divisional Secretariat Divisions who have lost their cultivable lands due to the acquisition of lands for the
Uma Oya Multipurpose Development Project.

However, the aforementioned proposal could not be implemented due to the encroachment of a large portion of the identified lands by unauthorized persons, heavy forest cover, the threats posed by wild elephants, remoteness from their original settlements, and difficulties in adapting to other environmental conditions and social anomalies.

Accordingly, the Cabinet of Ministers has approved the resolution furnished by the Minister of Agriculture, Livestock, Land, and Irrigation to pay an estimated compensation of Rs. 12 lakhs for each of these 276 farming families, based on the
recommendations submitted by the Cabinet Sub-Committee appointed to provide solutions for the issues arising in the implementation of the Uma Oya Multipurpose Development Project.