Sri Lanka Blocks Indian Oil Corp after Indian PM skips CHOGM

[Lankan Ranger]

Sri Lanka Blocks Indian Oil Corp after Indian PM skips CHOGM

Hardening its stance, Sri Lanka has refused to sign a decade old agreement to lease the Trincomalee strategic oil storages to a unit of Indian Oil Corp (IOC) and is blocking the Indian firm’s plans to set up a bitumen plant.

In 2003, Lanka IOC — a subsidiary of State-owned IOC — bought one-third share in Ceylon Petroleum Storage Terminals Ltd which operates the China Bay tank farm. Ceylon Petroleum Corp (CPC) and Colombo entered into an MoU with Lanka IOC to grant a long-term lease to the Indian firm for operating the 99 storage tanks at Trincomalee for 35 years for an annual fee of $100,000.

However, the 35-year lease finalisation dragged on and now Colombo has reservations on leasing out a ‘state asset’ to Lanka IOC.

Since commencing operations, Lanka IOC has invested close to $15 million at regular intervals in creating facilities such as additional storage tanks, lube blending facilities and refurbishing of jetty.

Sri Lankan Government having reservations on leasing the facilities to Lanka IOC, the entire project is stuck.

Lanka IOC, at the instance of the Sri Lankan Government, had in May submitted a proposal to operate the tank farms in a joint venture with CPC but there has been no response so far.

India voted against Sri Lanka in a US-sponsored resolution at the Human Rights Council in March, and has now downgraded its presence at the first multilateral CHOGM meeting in Colombo from the Prime Minister’s level.

Right after the UN vote, the Sri Lankan Government had announced it would renegotiate the tank farm agreement signed in 2003.

The China Bay tank farm, a World War II depot in Trincomalee, is the largest tank farm in South Asia and of great strategic value as it falls between West Asia and Singapore.

Sri Lanka hardens stand on pact to lease oil storage to IOC | Business Line

 

[Chaman_Lal]

Why don't we annex these deluded Lankans and get it over with? They are worse than mosquitoes.

 

[newdelhinsa]

The Chindu Newspaper is playing with dates to run its mouth against PM not visiting Sri Lanka. The deal had already gone down when India opposed SL in UN for the HR violations they committed against native Tamils. How many times The Chindu or GoSL will use this deal not gone in favor of India as something deleterious has happened or they can do to us.

 

[MohitV]

Why don't we annex these deluded Lankans and get it over with? They are worse than mosquitoes.

 

[Lankan Ranger]

Why don't we annex these deluded Lankans and get it over with? They are worse than mosquitoes.

 

[Sugarcane]

Why don't we annex these deluded Lankans and get it over with? They are worse than mosquitoes.

India is not shupa pawa yet.

 

[Skyline]

Why don't we annex these deluded Lankans and get it over with? They are worse than mosquitoes.

If a developed nation telling they are going to annex us, at least we can think about it. But India? LOL oh Indians, first try to provide basic facilities to your own citizens. I don't want to write more... 
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This oil tank complex is South Asia's biggest. It contains 99 oil tanks.

 

[Chaman_Lal]

So, you're gonna lease them to those commies? Go ahead. But for god sake, stop acting like a manipulative bitch! I mean look at you and look at Pakistan. We have serious issues with them, but still there is a grace by which we conduct our business.

 

[Nassr]

Lets see what can India do at geopolitical level:

· India can act as a countervailing force against China.

· As a milkman to sustain US economy.

· Compete with Chinese economic progress.

· Stabilize regional disputes with limited force projection capability.

Lets see what are India’s geopolitical and geostrategic strengths/weaknessess:

India cannot laterally expand its influence beyond its western borders due the existence of geo-political impediments in addition to the geographical restrictions placed by the presence of Pakistan, unless Pakistan allows it to do so.

Expansion of its influence towards the east is impeded due to the large geographical lay of China.

Myanmar can provide India with limited ability to expand towards South East Asia. Chinese influence in Myanmar has increased manifold and may limit future Indian endeavours.

Therefore the only direction it may be able to expand its influence is towards the vast expanse of sea in the south. The US also supports India’s increasing influence in IOR, but only as a second fiddle.

However even in the seas surrounding India, she is losing its influence amongst the island nations that surround India. Sri Lanka is a very important geostrategic and geopolitical player in this region and because of India’s Big Power syndrome along with unacceptable interference in Sri Lanka’s Tamil affairs, it has completely lost its support. So has been the case with Maldives.

India may be able to enhance her economic prowess and may be able to generate a bit of economic influence in all those countries which are its trading partners and may also be able to exercise a bit of negativity against Pakistan, China and Sri Lanka in this domain. However, India’s over 600 million poor and its poor infrastructure including the absence of industrial capacity and sustenance on services would be a big drain on India becoming an economic power house.

And it’s overall power projection and generation of influence in the key regions would still remain limited unless it drastically improves relations with both Sri Lanka, Pakistan and China.



Therefore, India’s concerns may not find due importance in places of import. This is so because India’s importance has diminished considerably due to her weakness at geopolitical and geostrategic levels.

 

[Skyline]

@Lankan Ranger GoSL has taken back the site which had given to the Indian Krrish Colombo project also?

????

Krrish site to be offered to CHOGM business delegates

The Government is to offer the Transwork site in Colombo now leased out to India’s Krrish group to potential investors attending the Commonwealth Business Forum, official sources said.
This is because the company has failed to make the final lease payment and amidst accusations of corruption linking a top state official to the deal.

The sources said that the Krrish group has only carried out soil testing while there was no sign of the project getting off the ground.

Another senior government official said that the government has given Krrish repeated extensions to make the final payment even imposing them with a 12 per cent fine for the delay on three occasions.

However the latest proposal to showcase the site to other investors has other repercussions as Krrish has already sold some super luxury apartments at around Rs. 93 million per unit.

Some of this money has been returned to apartment owners who requested the money back after the project ran into difficulties. But there are others whose money is still with Krrish.

Apart from that, the official said, that without a formal approval of the building plan it was somewhat illegal to sell the apartments.

Meanwhile the Investment Promotion Ministry is to submit a cabinet paper to reduce the land transfer tax to below 10 per cent to facilitate foreigners seeking to lease land.
Krrish site to be offered to CHOGM business delegates | The Sundaytimes Sri Lanka

 

[Mritunjaya]

Time to revive LTTE again in SL. This time we need to throw in some muslim terrorists too.

 

[Skyline]

Time to revive LTTE again in SL. This time we need to throw in some muslim terrorists too.

It looks like "ditta dharma vedaniya Karma" going to explode India.

 

[Mritunjaya]

It looks like "ditta dharma vedaniya Karma" going to explode India.

LOL.....nope. All the explosions are to be done exclusively in SL.

 

[Lankan Ranger]

@Lankan Ranger GoSL has taken back the site which had given to the Indian Krrish Colombo project also?

Krrish, Management issue….

Anyway South Korea or Australia will replace them...

 

[Azizam]

Why don't we annex these deluded Lankans and get it over with? They are worse than mosquitoes.

 

Time to revive LTTE again in SL. This time we need to throw in some muslim terrorists too.

Why? one PM getting blown up is not enough?