Sri Lanka splits oil blocks to meet demand, and BellGeospace will provide data.

Sri Lanka has reduced the number of oil offshore exploration blocks from 20 to 873 in order to make them smaller and more cost-effective for oil corporations to prospect, according to Energy Minister Udaya Gammanpila.

“When the block is vast, it is very expensive and takes a long time for a single business to explore,” Minister Gammanpila explained.

“As a result, some investors are put off. As a result, we merged the block, divided it into 873, and created new exploring maps.”

He stated that the government hired the UK-based BellGeospace to undertake an airborne survey to collect geophysical data to assist investors in selecting plots.

“This comes at no expense to the government,” Gammanpila explained. “The government owns the data. BellGeospace will recoup their investment by selling the data to prospectors.

“They will split earnings with the government as well.”

A new Petroleum Development Authority was also being established, and a bill to that effect would be tabled to parliament next month.

To collect the data, BellGeospace is performing a gravity and magnetic survey.