Saliya Wickramasuriya has been appointed chairman of the Ceylon Petroleum Corporation (CPC) and the Ceylon Petroleum Storage Terminals Ltd. (CPSTL).
He succeeds Uvais Mohamed, who has resigned, according to ‘Anidda’ following pressure by subject minister Kanchana Wijesekara.
The newspaper claimed Wijesekara had demanded him to agree to a closure of the oil refinery at Sapugaskanda and to receive crude oil less than the required amount to show low efficiency at the facility.
There are plans to sell the refinery to a foreign company that is to enter the local petroleum business shortly, it said.
Wijeseara had also wanted the ex-chairman to sack the casual workers recruited during the period Udaya Gammanpila was the petroleum minister.
The Leader TV YouTube channel had reported that Wijesekara was planning to remove Uvais, a brother of foreign minister Ali Sabry.
