The boon of 'Black Gold'

The establishment of the Ministry of Petroleum Resources Development with President Chandrika Bandaranaike Kumaratunga taking its helm as Minister, could be considered a stitch in time which could save the country from a plethora of economic blights.

The measure comes amid what has been described as "the discovery of potentially commercially viable oil reserves in the coastal belt from Puttalam to Hambantota through international surveys". The discovery of off-shore petroleum deposits or 'Black Gold', disclosed to the country recently by none other than President Kumaratunga herself, would prove a windfall for countries such as ours which are suffering economic convulsions in the wake of steep oil price rises in the world market.

Rising oil prices have left their dark imprint on the cost of living and it goes without saying that the masses would gain immensely by way of reduced living costs if Sri Lanka were to spend less on oil and petroleum products which are right now imported at tremendous financial cost to the country.

Therefore, while welcoming the installation of the new Ministry we call for expeditious explorations of petroleum deposits and for their judicious extraction and use.

The power and energy crisis which is upon us should also compel the authorities to go ahead with the proposed oil explorations. Today, the country is considerably dependent on thermal energy and our rising energy requirements are bound to make us increasing by dependent on thermal energy sources.

However, chronically unstable oil prices would have the effect of depleting our financial resources and even a degree of self-sufficiency in oil and energy sources would enable us to save more than a pretty penny.

Our problems in the energy sphere are also compounded by a rising vehicle population and on this score too, local oil sources would prove immensely beneficial although reducing vehicle imports and expanding our road network too offer themselves as sound solutions to the problem of suffocatingly-rising vehicle congestion.

However it is mainly in consideration of the depressing impact it would have on the cost-of-living burden that oil explorations and oil extraction have to be gone ahead with. Allied with this consideration is our need to lay the basis for an independent and indigenous industrial base which is yet to see the light of day although frenetic economic activity is noticeable in our urban centres and the metropolis. Indigenous sources of oil would be a great boon to our industrial development which is largely dependent an oil imports.

We also welcome moves to establish a new oil refinery in Sapugaskanda with the reported capacity to refine 100,000 barrels per day. This venture too would be a fillip to our industrial development and help in the generation of more jobs.

However, these ground-breaking ventures need to be launched on a cautionary note. That is, we cannot get started on these projects without ensuring that a basis would be laid for the fostering of local expertise for the sustained handling of these ventures.

We cannot be indefinitely dependent on foreign expertise and brains for the continuous operation of the projects. In other words, foreign inputs in any form should be kept at a minimum because such dependence would entail the draining out of our financial resources.

We hope these considerations are borne in mind by the authorities as they seek to judiciously extract our "Black Gold". One form of dependence should not be supplanted by another. Indeed, self-reliant development is the need of the hour.