S Lanka wins record foreign investment in oil project

COLOMBO, Mar 19 (AFP): Lanka announced Tuesday that an overseas joint venture had committed $3.85 billion to a new oil refinery-the single largest foreign investment in the country's history.

The Board of Investment of Sri Lanka said construction would begin this weekend on the refinery and storage facility jointly financed by Oman's Ministry of Oil and Gas and a Singapore-registered company.

Deputy international trade minister Nalin Bandara said he expected the refinery, which will eventually produce 200,000 barrels a day, to be fully operational within four years.

"This is the biggest single foreign investment (in Sri Lanka's history)," he told reporters in Colombo.

It is more than double the next largest foreign investment-a $1.4 billion land reclamation project next to Colombo port. Oman will fund 30 per cent of the new oil project while Singapore-based Silver Park International, which is majority owned by a business interest in India, will finance the rest.