Press briefing of Cabinet Decision taken on 2018-04-10

Action Plan for the Expeditious Exploration and Production of Petroleum in Sri Lanka

- Even though, the petroleum exploration activities in Sri Lanka have been moving forward at a slow pace during the past three years due to the negative growth trends of the global petroleum and natural gas excavation industry, Sri Lanka has been able to conduct off-shore exploration activities uninterruptedly with much vigour to achieve the local market needs. The Petroleum Resources Development Secretariat has taken action to initiate the awareness activities, paying attention to call for small scale bids for the development of natural gas deposits discovered, at present and call for formal bids for the implementation of exploration activities.

The bid round to explore the additional deposits in the natural gas deposit discovered from the block of land called M2 in the Mannar basin, is due to be announced in May 2018. It has been planned to enter into Agreements with selected companies for the petroleum exploration activities in the Eastern coastal line and the shallow sea area in Sri Lanka and it is also expected to focus on petroleum exploration in the land area of Sri Lanka. Accordingly, the above information pertaining to action and plans for expediting the exploration and production activities of Petroleum in Sri Lanka was presented to the Cabinet by Hon. Arjuna Ranatunga, the Minister of Petroleum Resources Development.