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Sri Lanka's Laugfs Gas is planning to construct a liquefied petroleum gas (LPG) terminal at Hambantota, in a move which would also be positive news for bunker sales volumes in the region.

Thilak de Silva, managing director of the LPG supplier said the company intends to build an unloading terminal at the new port of Hambantota, which is due to be open soon.

Laugfs Gas is understood to be one of two firms that bid to set up LPG terminals when a request for proposals was issued - the other being a Pakistan-based firm.

Silva's recent comments were supported by the company's recently published IPO prospectus, which said that the firm plans to have an all-weather storage and discharge terminal at Hambantota.

Laugfs Gas, whose public share issue to raise 2.5 billion rupees was oversubscribed on the opening day on November 4th, said in the prospectus that it intended to use funds from the IPO to settle debt, expand facilities and enter property development as the country recovers from a war.

The company also said it plans to use part of the funds raised to expand storage and increase the size of shipments with around 425 million rupees to be used for storage expansion and filling capacities on land.

Laugfs Gas also intends to acquire a floating storage facility in order to meet rising demand as improvements to fixed storage capacity on land were expected to take considerable time, the prospectus said.