Invitations for oil extraction by next September

by Anjana Samarasinghe

A seismic survey to examine the possibilities of oil extraction in Sri Lanka concluded last month.

Director General of the Petroleum Resources Project T. Jayawardena said that data processing of this survey has commenced in Australia.

The results of the survey are expected next July. The survey was done by a Geophysical company.

The company had allocated nearly US$ 7 million for the survey.

"Next September we hope to announce the invitation for oil extraction in Sri Lanka to international oil companies. After evaluating their proposals we expect to issue licenses in mid 2006 and authorised companies can commence their operations in 2007", he said.

Jayawardena said that they will participate at the Annual Conference of American Petroleum Geologists (AAPG) this year as well. This conference will be a great opportunity for Sri Lanka to have trade links with oil producing countries and international oil companies to gain more benefits from our natural resources, he said.

The Ceylon Petroleum Corporation (CPC) said they imported 16,142729 barrels of crude oil worth Rs 61.45 billion last year and expect to import the same amount this year too. CPC imported 1995 million MT of crude oil in 2003 and the total cost was Rs 41,628 million.