A senior Sri Lankan official has blamed poor quality crude oil imports for the shutdown of a power plant, leading to extended blackouts.
Utilities regulator chief Janaka Ratnayake said the oil burnt in the furnaces had too much sulphur in it.
But the country’s energy minister has disputed the allegation.
Last week, Sri Lanka increased its daily power outage from 80 minutes to 140 minutes because of a drop in power generating capacity.
“Sulphur content is too high in the furnace oil [fuel oil] which is not suitable for the current power plants and it’s also not conforming with environmental standards,” Mr Ratnayake, the head of the Public Utilities Commission, told the BBC.
“If you buy good quality crude oil for refineries, then this problem will not happen.”
Mr Ratnayake said about 10% of the country’s electricity came from diesel and fuel oil power plants. The rest of the electricity is generated from hydro, renewable and coal-powered plants.
But Power and Energy Minister Kanchana Wijesekara defended the crude oil import policy.
In a tweet, he said Sri Lanka’s state-run fuel retailer, Ceylon Petroleum Corporation, would respond legally to Mr Ratnayake’s allegation.
According to Mr Wijesekara, the power cut was extended because of a breakdown at one of the hydro-power stations and insufficient funds for diesel and fuel oil.
