Oil blocks to generate over US $ 2.25 b revenue

Ramani KANGARAARACHCHI

Sri Lanka is expected to generate over US$ 2.25 billion through investments from shallow water oil blocks in the Mannar basin shortly. The investment will be towards off shore oil exploration,drilling and production and infrastructure in the next five years.

Speaking at a forum organized by the National Chamber of Commerce on 'new business opportunities arising out of oil exploration in Sri Lanka,' Wednesday,Director General, Petroleum Resources Development Saliya Wickramasuriya said an international licensing round for some of the remaining blocks, will be launched during the next three months. Only the shallow water blocks in the Mannar Basin, closest to the coast, will be auctioned initially and he hoped that there will be many companies coming forward to invest in Sri Lanka.

Wickramasuriya said there will be a large number of upcoming business opportunities in the areas such as aviation, environment, catering and transportation within Sri Lanka to the right partners. He said that a considerable amount has to be invested on market research and risk management is also a huge area that has to be carefully handled.

Cairn is in the process of conducting more seismic surveys in preparation to drill a few more wells to properly define the reservoir potential ahead of commercial production. Last year Cairn India, was awarded one block in the first licensing round and , found gas and condensate in the first two test wells.