Press briefing of Cabinet Decision taken on 2015-11-18

The Data Collection Project by the Airborne Gravity and Magnetic Data Survey around the Mannar Basin and Reprocessing and Imaging of the Seismic Data

- The expectation of the present Government is to make Sri Lanka a nation self sufficient in energy by utilizing the full potential of all indigenous energy generation sources to the optimum level. In this endevour, the exploration activities of oil and natural gas in Sri Lanka receives an important place and the discovery of 2 natural gas reserves around the Mannar Basin in the year 2011 is one of the milestones in that regard. Even though, 2D seismic data that can be used to acquire information on the oil fields and natural gas fields said to exist around the Mannar Basin, has been acquired during the period of 2001 - 2005 covering the Mannar Basin, they are more than 10 years old and therefore, it is important to re-process and update the said data. Accordingly, the proposal made by Hon. Chandima Weerakkody, the Minister of Petroleum Resources Development, to award the Contracts for the Project for Modern Re-processing and Imaging the acquired Seismic Data and for carrying out a project on Airborne Gravity and Magnetic Survey of Mannar Basin, as recommended by the Cabinet Appointed Negotiating Committee and the Project Committee, was approved by the Cabinet.