Policy on Transport Energy – The Need for a Paradigm Shift
20th March 2020, By Eng. Parakrama Jayasinghe
The wartime Prime Minister of UK, Winston Churchill, once said “Never let any crisis be wasted”. One may add the more familiar saying ”Behind every crisis lies an opportunity”. When I commenced drafting this article, I had the issue of the drop in world oil industry in mind, which some would say is not a crisis but a boon. But now Sri Lanka is faced with the greater crisis of managing the Covid 19 virus which has now reached a worldwide pandemic status. As such it could also lead to a crisis in the energy security, of the country overriding any potential benefits from the drop in price.
The over dependence on imported sources of energy in the recent decades, would definitely lead to such problems of supplies, even if we have the funds to pay for them. The benefits of any price reduction would not be realized for many months, even if the low prices prevail. The corona virus epidemic may keep the world market oil prices depressed for some time to come. But as has been the behavior of the market in the past, the prices are bound to bounce back when the OPEC and Russia mange to overcome their differences. However, Sri Lanka has refining capacities to cater to only about 40% of the demand and thus the price of petrol and diesel will be determined by the pricing policies of the refiners, and not the published world market prices of crude oil. In the meanwhile what matters to the Sri Lankan economy and the consumers is the price per liter in Sri Lanka Rupee terms, which will inexorably go up irrespective of the world market price in US Dollars. The current trend in the face of the Covid 19 is most worrying with the Dollar already near Rs 190.00.
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Transport Policy and vission for the future final
Estimated Savings by EV conversion