US-based oil company RM Parks Inc. and the British multinational oil and gas company Shell PLC have held a discussion with Minister of Power & Energy Kanchana Wijesekera on commencing retail fuel sales in Sri Lanka in the first week of June this year.
The lawmaker held a virtual meeting with the officials of the two companies today (April 26) to discuss the agreements, policies, logistics, and timeline pertaining to the commencement of operations here.
Accordingly, it was decided to set a date in mid-May to sign the relevant agreements, Wijesekera said in a tweet.
Following a visit to the Ceylon Petroleum Storage Terminals Limited (CPSTL) tank farm last week, the technical officials of the RM Parks Inc. and Shell PLC offered to upgrade CPSTL berthing facilities to be in line with international standards and safety requirements, the minister said further.
Officials of the Power & Energy Ministry, the Central Bank of Sri Lanka, the Board of Investment, the Ceylon Petroleum Corporation & the CPSTL also joined the discussion.
Meanwhile, a team of China-based Sinopec officials and technical experts are currently in Sri Lanka to finalize the agreements and commence operations for retail fuel sales here.
They met with Wijesekera on Tuesday (April 25) to decide on a timeline, conditions of the agreement and other concerns.
Accordingly, it has been decided to sign the relevant agreements by mid-May and commence the operations 45 days after the signing, the minister said in a tweet posted earlier.
Chairman of the All-Ceylon Egg Producers’ Association, R.M. Sarath Rathnayake has said new measures to announce daily standardized egg prices will be introduced from next Monday (June 23) to ensure fair pricing for consumers.
The prices covering wholesale, retail, and intermediary rates will be communicated daily at 5.00am via SMS to small, medium, and large-scale egg producers, as well as bakery owners, food manufacturers, and hotels through the number 070-7030700.
He warned of recent practices where eggs were bought at Rs.15-18 and stockpiled, stating such actions will no longer be tolerated.
He also criticized groups posing as “egg associations” without actual farming experience.
The cost of producing an egg is around Rs.28 for large farms, Rs.29-30 for medium range farms, and Rs.32 for small-scale producers, he further said.
A staggering 16 billion passwords to Apple, Facebook, Google, and various US government services have been leaked online, triggering global security alerts in what experts are calling the most significant data breach in history.
The mammoth security breach has forced Google to urge billions of users to change their passwords immediately.
At the same time, the FBI has issued warnings to Americans about opening suspicious links in SMS messages.
Cybersecurity experts at Cybernews, who investigated the breach, discovered a whopping 30 exposed datasets containing between tens of millions and over 3.5 billion records each.
Perhaps most alarmingly, researchers confirmed that nearly all these exposed datasets contain previously unreported information, making this an entirely fresh security crisis.
“This is not just a leak – it’s a blueprint for mass exploitation,” the researchers said via Forbes this week.
Dimuthu Abeyesekera has been appointed as the new Chairman of the Colombo Stock Exchange (CSE).
The CSE announced that Mr. Abeyesekera brings over 35 years of experience in the capital markets and has served on the CSE Board for the past six years.
He currently serves as the Director/CEO of Asha Securities Ltd, which is affiliated with Phillip Capital Singapore, a specialized financial services organization managing assets worth over US$ 35 billion with a network of offices around the world.
Abeysekera also currently serves as the Director at Asha Financial Services Ltd, a specialised margin Trading Company in Colombo.