Kuwait help for oil exploration

Chamikara Weerasinghe

KUWAIT: Kuwait will send a team of oil experts to Sri Lanka to help its on-going oil exploration efforts and its actions under way to modernise existing oil refineries.

The Oil Minister of Kuwait, Sheikh Ali Al-Jarrah Al-Sabah has promised to send the team of oil experts during bilateral talks held between him and Sri Lankan President Mahinda Rajapaksa in Kuwait , yesterday.

President Rajapaksa arrived in Kuwait in the early hours of yesterday and was received with state honours by Emir Shaba Al-Ahamad.

Diplomatic sources said that the Oil Minister of Kuwait had also consented to supply crude oil and refined petroleum to Sri Lanka at reduced rates during the talks.

President Rajapaksa had met Kuwait's Labour and Public Relations Minister Sabahal Khaledal Hamadal at Bayan Palace.

The Kuwait Labour Minister had announced the consent of the Kuwait Government to offer jobs in their country for more Sri Lankan workers in 30 large-scale institutions.

These jobs will be for trained workers in various skilled -based fields, the sources said.

Around 135,000 Sri Lankans are working in Kuwait. Of them 2,000 were reported to have faced with difficulties.

The Government of Kuwait had agreed to send them to Sri Lanka without fining them.