Sri Lanka seeks US petroleum investors

[TamilNet, Tuesday, 24 April 2007, 10:49 GMT]
Sri Lanka’s Minister for Petroleum and Petroleum Resources Development, A. H. M Fowzie, will lead delegation on May 1 to a key meeting in Texas of investors in oil exploration organized by the US embassy in Colombo, reports said. Minister Fowzie and the US ambassador to Sri Lankan Robert O’ Blake are expected to address the breakfast meeting scheduled for May 1 in Houston, the Daily Mirror reported.

The Sri Lankan delegation to the meeting in Houston will comprise several officials of the Petroleum ministry, the chairman of Caltex Lanka Lubricants Ltd, Kishu Gomes and other key players in Sri Lanka’s petroleum sector, the paper reported.

“Nearly 500 investors will participate at the meeting and our intention is to make them aware of our off shore oil exploration activities, and expose our oil exploration work to them,” Minister Fowzie told the Daily Mirror.

A month ago Mr. O’Blake signed an agreement to grant of US$474,000 to the Sri Lankan Ministry of Finance and Planning to develop the country’s oil and gas sector.

The US grant is to fund technical assistance to the Ministry of Petroleum and Petroleum Resources Development in support of “its efforts to develop a comprehensive oil and gas regulatory system and establish an organizational structure for the regulatory authority,” the US said.

"A well-developed regulatory structure is essential to attracting and keeping high-quality investors in the oil sector," Mr. Blake was quoted as saying at the time.