State Trading Organization (STO) is to expand its oil supply services to neighboring Sri Lanka this February.

This was revealed through a press briefing on Wednesday, where the company shared details of their earnings for the last quarter of 2019.

As such STO’s Managing Director Hussain Amru revealed the company’s decision to expand oil supplying services to other countries as well.

Further, STO plans to bring in a larger oil tanker throughout this year.

Amru went on to reveal that although oil prices have increased during the last year due to conflicts in the middle east, the company is working to ensure that petrol and diesel are made available for Maldivians at affordable prices.

The most recent change to oil prices was brought during 2019, as such, diesel and petrol prices were lowered during June.

Despite having had a successful year in 2019 compared to 2018, Amru said that the company faced several challenges due to mounting oil prices in the global market.

As such, oil prices hiked by 34 percent in 2019, but oil was sold in the local market at affordable prices and by the end of the year, prices were lowered by 80 laari compared to the beginning of 2019.