Lankans Interested in Oil Collaboration With Iran

EghtesadOnline: Sri Lanka wants to draw on Iranian expertise in offshore drilling following their recent oil exploration and discoveries in the Indian Ocean, said Mansour Bazmi, deputy for the downstream sector at Iran's Research Institute of Petroleum Industry.

News ID: ۷۷۳۳۴۴

20 January 2017

After holding talks with Susil Premajayantha, Sri Lankan minister of technology and research, on Wednesday in Tehran, Bazmi, said, "Sri Lanka has started oilfield operations and is negotiating with oil-rich states, namely Iran, to tap into the new oil and gas resources," Mehr News Agency reported. Premajayantha was part of a delegation of Sri Lankan officials who traveled to Tehran this week to explore grounds for cooperation in the oil sector.

According to Bazmi, Sri Lanka is keen on cooperating with RIPI engineers and experts to acquire the much-needed technology in drilling, exploration and refining sectors. The two sides have planned to sign a memorandum of understanding.

"Sri Lanka is in talks with Iran to resume crude imports," Premajayantha said, adding that Ceylon Petroleum Corp's decades-old 50,000 barrels-per-day plant, the island nation's only oil refinery, was originally configured to run on Iranian crude and Sri Lanka had to import more refined oil products after international sanctions caused it to stop crude imports from Iran.

Reportedly, CPC replaced the Iranian crude with supplies from Malaysia and Abu Dhabi but the efficiency of processing the grades was low which explains why resumption of light crude import from Iran is again on the table. RIPI was founded in 1959. Its primary aim was carrying out research on the application of petroleum materials. It has continued its activities with the aim of carrying out fundamental, applied, and developmental research, according to Financial Tribune.

The research institute has played a key role in the production and export of science and technology in oil, gas and petrochemical industries in the country and region.