Ministers Oman bound for talks on Hambantota refinery project

Petroleum Resources Minister Kabir Hashim and Development Strat e gies Minister Malik Samarawickrama have left for Oman for discussions on the Hambantota oil refinery project. They are to be joined by Industry and Commerce Minister Rishad Bathiudeen who was a key participant at earlier talks on the controversial venture.

Minister Samarawickrama said yesterday that he and Minister Hashim were invited by the Government of Oman but said he had no knowledge of Minister Bathiudeen ( who was already abroad yesterday afternoon) also being there. “I don’t know if he’s also coming there because it’s about petroleum and other industries,” he said.

It was announced in March that the Omani Ministry of Oil and Gas would have a 30 percent stake in a US$ 3.8bn (Rs 685.5bn) oil refinery project in Hambantota. It later emerged that Oman had no shareholding in the project which was mooted by a Singapore- registered entity called Silver Park International.

Three of Silver Park's four directors are Jegathrakshagan Sundeep Anand, Jagathrakshakan Sri Nisha and Jagathrakshakan Anusuya. They are the son, daughter and wife of S. Jagathrakshakan, a DMK stalwart.

In Hambantota, hundreds of acres of land have been allocated to the project. There has been no EIA and there are still no investors. It is feared now that Sri Lanka will give a long-term purchase guarantee to Omani oil interests in order to secure their participation.