Sri Lanka Ports Authority (SLPA) and Ceylon Petroleum Corporation (CPC) trade unions have both demanded that their respective managements should take over the bunkering operations of the private company Lanka Marine Service (Pvt) Limited (LMS), according to reports from Sri Lanka.

LMS, a subsidiary of conglomerate John Keells Holdings PLC (JKH), has been ordered by the local Supreme Court to vacate the Colombo onshore oil storage facility housing its bunkering infrastructure by August 20, after the court deemed the sale of LMS to JKH in 2002 an illegal transaction.

Both the SLPA and CPC have said they would take care of the future of 113 LMS employees working at the site.  

"The employees requested the authorities to allow them to work for CPC but the SLPA Managing Director informed us that the SLPA would be taking care of the LMSL employees' needs," a CPC union representative told The Nation.  

Meanwhile, an SLPA representative told The Nation that SLPA employees had requested that its management take over the operations of LMS, enabling the port authority to enter bunkering.

"We have already informed the management about the SLPA employees' stand on taking over LMSL operations. It would allow the SLPA to generate higher income and allow it to diversify its operations," he said.

The land where the LMS bunkering facilities are located will be returned to the port authority, which has previously said the land will not be transferred to any party, but could be used as a common facility for users holding oil banks and bunkering licences from the Ministry of Petroleum.

Officials from the SLPA have said the authority has the ability to operate the facility, possibly with the assistance of an affiliated company, JCT Corporation, to maintain the shore infrastructure used for bunkering activities.

Another possibility mentioned was for LMS to lease the land from the SLPA to restore its operations.

But CPC Common Services Union General Secretary D.J. Rajakaruna has urged the government to allow CPC to take over the operations of LMS, which has enjoyed a near-monopoly on bunkering services at Colombo port.

"CPC has been handling LMSL for many years, before it was handed over to John Keells Holdings in 2002 along with 113 employees. The CPC has the expertise to do bunkering and we should utilize that expertise," he was quoted saying.

There was a warning that CPC union members could instigate 'severe trade union action against the government' if CPC was not allowed to commence bunkering from the site.

LMS is said to have hired two tankers to store oil currently held in the onshore tanks as it prepares to vacate the Colombo port land.

Employees of LMS have reportedly refused to transfer oil stored in the tanks to the two tankers anchored outside the port, some say due to fears about their job security.

According to one local paper, the LMS employees said that while it was their duty to pump oil to ships for bunkering purposes, they were not contractually obliged to remove oil from tanks.