GAS AND OIL DEPOSITS FOUND IN SRI LANKA WHAT'S NEXT ?

Sri Lankan President Mahinda Rajapaksa stated that exploration teams have found a Gas field in island nation's offshore seabed close to Mannar nearly 8 months ago. The Indian drilling company called Cairn Lanka confirmed to have found a huge deposit of (natural) gas in the sea bed" Rajapaksa had told the addressing a gathering at Kandy.later it was reported in media that Cairn Lanka started drilling its first well in the Mannar Basin. That time, Economic Development Minister Basil Rajapaksa has told reporters in Puttalam that if Sri Lanka is successful finding oil in Mannar Basin, which is believed to hold around one billion barrels of oil, the country would no longer have to depend on importing oil from other countries, a prospect that would save billions of dollars to the country.Sri Lanka gave one block each to India and China in 2007. In the past USA and Russian companies from the mid-1960s to 1984 undertook exploration work in the Cauvery basin, but no commercial oil was produced and Sri Lanka's civil war ended exploration. With the end of the 25-year war in May 2009, the $50 billion economy has focused on oil and gas exploration in its economic revival plans.Calgary-based Bengal Energy Ltd. has exploration rights for 1,362 sq km on the Indian side of the Cauvery basin, which already has nearly 30 operating wells.Sri Lanka currently produces no oil and is totally dependent on imports, which cost it US $ 3 billion a year.