The US Ambassador recently met with Energy Minister Udaya Gammanpila to exert pressure to be awarded the tender for the construction of a large scale oil refinery in Sri Lanka to American construction companies.

Only the Oil Refinery, which was commissioned in 1969, is successfully operating in Sri Lanka currently.

The Sri Lankan government has been making unsuccessful attempts to build a new refinery since 1983.

The existing refinery is refining 38,000 barrels of crude oil per day and steps are being taken to increase that volume to 45,000 barrels per day. In addition, the government has taken steps to build a new plant to refine 100,000 barrels of crude oil per day.

The total cost is US $ 3 billion or 60 billion rupees. Accordingly, it will be the largest investment in the history of the country.

Earlier, the construction of the Hambantota port cost US $ 1.350 billion and the Norochcholai power plant cost US $ 900 billion.

The proposed new refinery will be commissioned under the BOT basis (built and maintained by another party and handed over to the Government).

Once the new refinery becomes operational, it will save Sri Lanka $ 300 million annually.