Petroleum is among the most prominent industries in Sri Lanka. In order to fulfil the country‟s petroleum demand, the Ceylon Petroleum Corporation (CPC) has outsourced the storage and distribution function to Ceylon Petroleum Storage Terminals Limited (CPSTL). Currently CPSTL distributes petroleum products from two installation plants to eleven regional depots using both bowsers and rail wagons. When considering the distribution function from the Kolonnawa installation plant to the regional depots, bowser transportation dominates over rail. Even though rail transportation is more economical, efficient and environmentally friendly, only around 35-40% of the daily bulk petroleum volume is carried using rail while the rest is transported using the road network. The reason for lesser utilisation of railways for the distribution of petroleum products is investigated in this research and a new distribution model which maximises the utilisation of rail, while maximising savings for CPC and profits for Sri Lanka Railways (SLR) is also proposed.

Amarasinghe, W.K.M.S., & Kumarage, A.S. (2016). Increasing use of railways for the transport of petroleum products in Sri Lanka [Extended Abstract]. In T.L. Gunaruwan (Ed.), Proceedings of 1st International Conference on Research for Transport and Logistics Industry 2016 (pp. 65-68). Sri Lanka Society of Transport and Logistics. https://slstl.lk/r4tli-2016/