In a meeting held between the petroleum ministers of Saudi Arabia and Sri Lanka, Saudi Arab agreed to provide necessary training to Sri Lankan people to explore and refine oil in their own country. Sri Lanka is looking forward to increase its oil refining capability and extracting oil inside the country.
The technical know-how from Saudi Arabia will help the country to make its projects successful. Arab News reports:
“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.
At present, Sri Lanka imports most of its oil from Iran and 10% from Saudi Arabia. However, in near future the amount of import will increase upto 30%. In 2002 and 2005, Sri Lanka conducted seismic survey and found out that Southern part of the country has the possibility of containing oil deposits.
Big or small all the countries around the world are observing an increase in the consumption of oil. To meet the demands of the increasing population, more oil is needed. Sri Lanka is also facing the same problem. Increasing the use of oil is not a very good solution. More oil means more pollution and more degradation of the environment. From now on, along with using fuel oil, Sri Lankan government should take necessary steps to look for suitable alternatives.
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Arab News
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