Sri Lanka May Produce First Gas by 2017-18

Sri Lanka expects to start producing natural gas from its offshore blocks once sales agreement talks with Cairn India concludes, according to Saliya Wickramasuriya, Director General of the Petroleum Resources Development Secretariat.

"We would like to be able to finalize an agreement [with Cairn India] within this year," he said in an interview to Platts.

Production may begin around 2017-18 if talks with Cairn succeed and a price of mutual agreement is reached, Wickramasuriya told Platts on the sidelines of 19th Asia Oil Week upstream conference in Singapore.

Cairn India has made two gas discoveries -- Dorado and Barracuda - in the block so far.

The gas will be supplied to Ceylon Electricity Board's power plants, which currently run on imported fuel and gasoil.

Sri Lanka is also in talks with two majors, one of which is France's Total, on joint study agreements for the country's ultra-deepwater blocks, Wickramasuriya said