Offshore prospecting for oil commences

Research vessel BGP Pioneer, sailing under the Panama flag, yesterday (2) commenced seismic data acquisition, to explore Sri Lanka’s prospects of petroleum resources, in selected offshore areas of the island. The operations commenced ceremonially yesterday morning at the Colombo Port.

The seismic survey will acquire 5,000-line kilometres of data in the JS5 and JS6 exploration blocks in the Lanka Basin, as the first step and then will extend operations into the Kaweri and Mannar basin too. The Petroleum Resources Development Ministry signed an agreement with Eastern Echo DMCC, a subsidiary of a major oilfield services company Schlumberger, in May to explore oil and gas resources. The company will collect market and license petroleum data on ‘multi-client’ basis, enabling several data acquisition projects, including 2D and 3D seismic data.

This agreement acts as an umbrella for the execution of several multi-client based service agreements to carry out seismic data acquisition surveys, advanced data processing, interpretation work or modelling of petroleum systems. While addressing the launching ceremony, the Minister of Petroleum Resources and Development, Arjuna Ranathunga said that the mission was to identify the exact locations where mineral oil and natural gases mines are situated.

“There have been basic details regarding the availability of mineral oil and natural gas. However, unfortunately all the previous efforts to find out the exact locations failed. That`s why we are starting this as a fresh project. Around 2,040, Sri Lanka will be able to excavate and find the gas after long scientific research and technical intervention,” he said.