Govt. to initiate steps for offshore petroleum exploration

• Consultant firm to be selected for international tender calling 

By Kelum Bandara 
The government is to undertake offshore gas exploration after the selection of a consultant firm to handle the international  tender process in this regard, an official said yesterday.  
 In Sri Lanka, a national policy on natural gas was  gazetted in September 2020, outlining domestic demand creation  strategies and providing operators with options to commercialise  offshore gas. A new Petroleum Resources Act No. 21 of 2021 has also been  introduced to regulate the process.  

The Petroleum Development Authority of Sri Lanka (PDASL) has also been established as the independent upstream regulator.   
Offshore Sri Lanka consists of four sub-basins: Cauvery,  Mannar, South Lanka, and East Lanka. Past discoveries have proven the  petroleum system in the Mannar basin, according to PDASL. Chairman of the Ceylon Petroleum Corporation (CPC) D.A.  Rajakaruna told Daily Mirror that the government would call for tenders  after the budget debate to select a consultant firm to be assigned for  international tender calling to develop the upstream petroleum industry  in Sri Lanka.    In 2011, Cairn Lanka Private Limited’s Dorado well made the  first discovery of natural gas in Sri Lanka, followed by the Barracuda  natural gas discovery, and proving a productive petroleum system in the  Upper Cretaceous section of the northern Mannar Basin. Cairn departed  the undeveloped fields in 2015 stating that the fields would not be  commercial, a decision made when the average international oil prices  were below US $ 40.  
PDASL has the authority to prepare a map dividing offshore and  onshore areas into sections to demarcate and designate exploration  blocks and development blocks. It can market and promote blocks.   
The Act says, “The ownership of all petroleum data obtained  or prepared in pursuant to any petroleum operation in Sri Lanka shall  be vested in the State and the management and control of such petroleum  data shall be vested with the Authority. The Authority may issue a  licence permitting access to the petroleum data for the commercial,  educational or scientific use by any person subject to the procedure and  the fees as may be prescribed.”