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Lanka IOC, the Sri Lankan unit of Indian Oil Corporation has announced that it has chartered an additional bunker barge to meet increasing bunker demand at the port of Colombo.

The company, which up until now has been using two locally-chartered barges for delivering marine fuel to customers, has chartered its third vessel - a 1800 metric tonne tanker barge - to keep up with the recent rise in orders.

The three barges will be used to transport marine fuel from shore-based storage tanks to ships calling at the port of Colombo.

Lanka IOC, which also sells marine lubricants, managed to significantly reduced its manufacturing costs last year when it began to produce lubricants locally instead of importing from India, thus enabling it to become more price competitive.

Industry sources have claimed that it will be extremely difficult for lubricant players to survive without local manufacturing blending plants in Sri Lanka.

Kishu Gomes, Director of Chevron Lubricants Lanka, recently stated that he thought only about two or three players would be able to weather the storm over the next 3 to 4 years.

Meanwhile, Lanka IOC's bunker business has also been thriving since Sri Lanka's Supreme Court last year ordered Lanka Marine Services, the bunkering unit of John Keells Holdings, to give up the land it used for refuelling ships.