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Sri Lanka's fuel stocks will last no more than 25 days at current consumption levels, the Ceylon Petroleum Corporation's managing director, Mayura Neththikumarage, told The Examiner on 20 March 2026, as the island's energy crisis deepened sharply against a backdrop of war in West Asia and surging global oil prices.
His remarks came as Sri Lankan president Anura Kumara Dissanayake confirmed in Parliament last week that five new fuel orders had been placed: one vessel carrying petrol, two carrying diesel, one carrying fuel oil, and one carrying jet fuel. Neththikumarage said that if those shipments arrived on time, stocks should hold until the beginning of June.
The situation has been made significantly worse by panic buying.
In the first ten days of March alone, Sri Lankans consumed one and a half times the normal volume of fuel, exhausting what should have been a fortnight's supply in ten days. CPC Chairman Janaka Rajakaruna told The Sunday Times that 58,000 tonnes of diesel and 47,000 tonnes of 92 octane petrol had been pumped in that period. Fuel distributors have been unsparing in their assessment. Private operators Sinopec and Shell were unable to keep pace with demand, and some filling stations were forced to close earlier in the week. Had customers not rushed to the pumps, distributors say, existing supplies would have been sufficient for the full month.
Against this backdrop, the Sri Lankan government raised fuel prices by around 25 per cent on Sunday 22 March, the second such increase in a week and the third since the beginning of March. Auto diesel rose 26.1 per cent from LKR 303 to LKR 382 per litre. Super diesel increased 25.5 per cent from LKR 353 to LKR 443. Petrol 92 octane rose 25.6 per cent from LKR 317 to LKR 398, while 95 octane went from LKR 365 to LKR 455. Kerosene, used widely by lower-income households for cooking, rose 30.8 per cent from LKR 195 to LKR 255.
The increases return retail fuel prices to the levels seen during Sri Lanka's 2022 economic crisis, when Colombo declared its first sovereign debt default since independence. That collapse brought about the fall of accused war criminal and then-president Gotabaya Rajapaksa. Analysts now project that the latest round of price hikes could push inflation up by between five and eight per cent.
The knock-on effects are already being felt in the transport sector. Private bus operators warned on Sunday that 90 per cent of their fleet could be taken off the road unless fares were revised in response to the diesel price increase.
"This is the biggest rise of diesel ever, we will not be able to operate buses without an adequate fare revision. We need a minimum 15 per cent fare hike to stay afloat," said Gamunu Wijeratne, chair of the private bus owners' association. The Lanka Private Bus Owners' Association announced it would call a nationwide strike if a scheduled fare revision was not formally announced.
Sri Lanka does not import fuel through the Strait of Hormuz directly, sourcing its supplies instead from India, Malaysia, South Korea, and Singapore. The closure of the strait following the United States and Israel's attack on Iran and Iran's subsequent retaliation has nonetheless disrupted global supply chains and pushed Brent crude above $100 a barrel, with some reports citing prices as high as $126.
"When a situation like this erupts…the entire country must face the ramifications. We are facing that same situation today," Herath told Parliament, while also confirming that Sri Lanka had refused requests from both the United States, which sought ground access for its war planes, and Iran, which had sought port calls for its vessels.
In response to the deteriorating situation, Sri Lanka has already implemented a QR code-based fuel rationing system, introduced a four-day working week for the public sector, and launched a number plate-based rationing scheme under which vehicles receive fuel on alternating dates according to whether their registration number ends in an odd or even digit. Tourism, a critical source of foreign exchange during Sri Lanka's ongoing debt restructuring, is also feeling the pressure. Hotel bookings across the south of the island have dried up as the crisis deepens.
The Sri Lankan government is also exploring the possibility of importing fuel from Russia, with Foreign Minister Vijitha Herath holding talks with the Russian ambassador to Colombo. Herath has separately described the redevelopment of the Second World War-era oil tank farms in Trincomalee as the long-term answer to Sri Lanka's energy vulnerability, pointing to the tripartite memorandum of understanding signed with India and the United Arab Emirates in April 2025 to develop the site as a regional energy hub.