Sri Lanka has started for the first time an airborne oil exploration survey in its seawater for potential petroleum resources, Energy Minister Udaya Gammanpila said, adding the data and other information collected from the survey will help oil investors looking to invest in the island’s energy sector.  The survey--the contract for which was signed earlier this year with UK-based Bell Geospace, a world-renowned geophysical survey company--will explore the shallow water areas in Mannar and Cauvery basins. 

“The long-awaited airborne survey has now been operationalized and it will bring new insight to the petroleum explorations in Sri Lanka,” reads a statement issued by the Petroleum Resources Development Secretariat of Sri Lanka (PRDS), reported Colombopage portal.

Medium deep water (depth between 150 -800 meters) areas of the Mannar basin where there are limited seismic data and shallow water areas (<150 meters) where there is no petroleum data, will be covered during the field data acquisition part of the work program, officials said.

Bell Geospace, which is conducting the survey, will market and sell these survey data to potential operators who are planning to take part in Sri Lankan petroleum explorations. The company will compile 3D Full Tensor Gradiometry, gravity, and magnetic survey data on a multi-client basis for the region. 

The island nation has divided its oil-rich areas into 20 plots, which are further compartmentalized into 873 blocks. Some blocks like in Mannar and Cauvery basins have lacked the data required for oil explorations. 

Potential petroleum investors need the scientific data and information of those plots to decide which piece to choose for their exploration.

(SAM)