RIYADH, 27 October 2007 — The Sri Lankan government has called for oil companies to submit bids for oil exploration in the Indian Ocean island, Abdul Hameed Muhammed Fowzie, the island’s minister for petroleum and petroleum resources, told Arab News yesterday. Fowzie, who was en-route to the forthcoming Doha Conference on Natural Gas, came to the Kingdom to perform Umrah and to visit the Prophet’s Mosque in Madinah.
“We want to get the right party to carry out the exploration since the seismic survey carried out in 2002 had indicated that the Mannar basin could produce one billion barrels,” Fowzie said, adding that the bids for this tender would close in January 2008. Mannar Basin covers an area of 35,000 km, stretching from Mannar in the north east to Kalutara in the south. The minister said that his ministry had given adequate publicity to select the best oil explorer from applicants.
“We have conducted road shows in Houston, London and Kuala Lumpur where more than 200 companies have evinced interest in participating in the program,” he said, adding that plans are underway to conduct another seismic survey in the South of the island to check the availability of oil in the in the deep seas near the coastal town of Hambantota, some 250 km from Colombo.
Fowzie, who is also the minister in charge of Haj affairs, said that around 5,500 pilgrims are expected to come for pilgrimage this year. He added that the government has opened a special office in Colombo to help pilgrims easily obtain travel documents.
“The Hajis will come through a network of 67 travel operators who have experience in the pilgrimage services,” he said.
Considering the large number of Haj applicants, priority this year will be given to people intending to go for Haj for the first time and to applicants who are above 40 years of age. He said that the Saudi Embassy in Colombo is assisting the Department of Islamic Affairs in the issuance of Haj visas to the pilgrims who are selected for Haj this year.
On complaints received by his ministry, he said a total of four travel operators were blacklisted since they violated the government’s Haj regulations and had caused untold hardships to pilgrims, who came last year. He said that the Department of Islamic Affairs in Colombo would conduct orientation programs for intended pilgrims. “It would cover personal hygiene, food habits, general cleanliness and pilgrims cooperation with the Saudi authorities while performing Haj rituals,” he said.
