RIYADH, 24 March 2008 — The Kingdom has agreed to train Sri Lankans in the field of exploration and refining oil in the island. This was the outcome of yesterday’s talks between Ali Al-Naimi, minister of petroleum and mineral resources and Abdul Hameed Mohamed Fowzie, minister of petroleum and petroleum resources development at a meeting held at the ministry headquarters yesterday.
“We had fruitful discussions with my counterpart here and we are happy that the Kingdom has agreed to cooperate with Sri Lanka in areas of mutual interests in the field of oil supply, exploration and investments,” Fowzie said. The charge d’ affairs of the Sri Lankan Embassy, W.S.M.S.Wijesundera, consul general in Jeddah, Abdul Latiff Mohammed Lafeer, commercial counselor, Yasantha De Silva, and Mohammed Jabir represented the ministerial team during the discussions.
“We have plans to improve our refining capacity from 50,000 to 100,000 barrels a day and getting Saudi expertise for the proposed expansion will facilitate the successful implementation of the project,” Fowzie said. He added that the island needs a cracker to convert crude into diesel and petrol which would cost the government some $400 million. He requested his counterpart to recommend that the OPEC Fund assist the island in the purchase of this plant.
Sri Lanka buys 10 percent of her oil requirements from the Kingdom and her main supplier is Iran which delivers 70 percent of the island’s demand. Sri Lanka also buys a substantial quantity of crude from Malaysia. The minister said that his country has plans to increase its oil import from 10 to 30 percent in the near future.
Fowzie said that Sri Lanka conducted seismic surveys in 2002 and 2005 that revealed there are high chances of finding oil in the Mannar Basin which covers an area of 35,000 km, stretching from Mannar in the North East to Kalutara in the South. Currently, he said three plots have been allotted for oil exploration in this basin to companies from India and China. “There are six more plots to be offered on tenders shortly,” the minister said. He also said that developing countries such as Sri Lanka found it difficult to cope with rising oil prices. “We do not want a concessional oil price, but the OPEC Fund can grant us some assistance to relieve us from this price hike.”
During the ministerial talks, Al-Naimi said that the Kingdom, being an oil producing country, has rich experience in the field of oil exploration. “We can exchange experience with our friends in Sri Lanka,” he added. He requested the visiting team to contact local businessmen and leading Saudi banks for investments in oil exploration projects. Al-Naimi said Saudi experts could visit Sri Lanka and offer them the required training in the field of exploration.
