Colombo - Sri Lanka said it may buy more oil from Russia as the island nation hunts desperately for fuel amid an unprecedented economic crisis, the newly appointed prime minister Ranil Wickremesinghe said in an interview with the Associated Press.
Wickremesinghe said he would first look to other sources but would be open to buying more crude from Moscow though Western nations cut off energy imports from Russia in line with sanctions over the Ukrainian war. He said Russia had also offered wheat to Sri Lanka.
In the interview with The Associated Press on Saturday, Wickremesinghe also indicated he would be willing to accept more financial help from China, despite his country’s mounting debt.
Sri Lanka which has a cumulative $51 billion in foreign debt, has left the country with no money for basic imports, leaving citizens struggling to access basic necessities such as food, fuel, medicine, even toilet paper and matches. The shortages have spawned rolling power outages, and people have been forced to wait days for cooking gas and gasoline in lines that stretch for kilometers (miles).
Two weeks ago, the country bought a 90,000-metric-ton (99,000-ton) shipment of Russian crude to restart its only refinery, the energy minister told reporters.
Wickremesinghe however said he did not know whether more orders were in the pipeline. But he said Sri Lanka desperately needs fuel, and is currently trying to get oil and coal from the country’s traditional suppliers in the Middle East.
Sri Lanka has received and continues to reach out to numerous countries for help, including the most controversial, China, currently the country’s third-largest creditor. Opposition figures have accused the president and the former prime minister of taking on a slew of Chinese loans for splashy infrastructure projects that have since failed to generate profit, instead adding to the country’s debt.
Sri Lanka is also seeking financial assistance from the World Food Programme, which may send a team to the country soon, and Wickremesinghe is banking on a bailout package from the International Monetary Fund. But even if approved, he doesn’t expect to see money from the package until October onwards.
-AP