Baku-APA. Fuel prices have soared to record high in Sri Lanka as the bans imposed by the US and the European Union on Iran energy sector take their toll on the South Asian country’s crude imports, APA reports quoting Press TV.
“When our [only oil] refinery is designed for particular [Iranian light] crude and when we cannot get that...there is a 20-percent reduction in the yields," Reuters quoted Sri Lanka’s Petroleum Industries Minister Anura Priyadarshana Yapa as saying on Saturday.
As the result of the decline in the yields and in order to prevent further loss, the South Asian country’s Ceylon Petroleum Corporation has raised the price of every liter of gasoline by 1.9 percent to 162 rupees (USD1.27) while diesel prices have been also raised by 5.2 percent to 121 rupees (USD O.9).
Sri Lank has no oil reserves of its own and relies heavily on imports of Iranian oil. Before US-led sanctions on Tehran, Sri Lanka imported as much as 90 percent of its oil from Iran and refined it at a plant funded by the Islamic Republic.
The US, Israel, and some of their allies have repeatedly accused Iran of pursuing non-civilian objectives in its nuclear energy program.
The US has also spearheaded several rounds of unilateral Western sanctions against Iran in recent years, based on the unfounded accusation that Iran is pursuing military objectives in its nuclear energy program.
Earlier this month, the United States imposed new sanctions on Iran’s energy sector in an attempt to force the Islamic Republic to halt its nuclear energy program.
The sanctions, which took effect on February 6, prevent Iran from gaining access to earnings garnered through crude exports.
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