Sri Lanka will set up a national oil company and look for another partner to drill offshore natural gas deposits with the withdrawal of Cairn, Power and Energy Minister Patali Champika Ranawaka said.

The new government has take a policy decision to exploit the gas reserves found by Cairn in the Mannar Basin to pump it ashore at Kerawalapitiya on the north-west coast to initially feed government and private power stations, he said.

"We will form a national oil company and find a suitable partner to get this gas to Kerawalapitiya," he told a form on energy organized by Ceylon Chamber of Commerce Monday.

"That’s our ambitious plan."

Ranawaka said the new government's national energy plan unveiled last week aims to achieve energy self-sufficiency by 2025.

Ranawaka said the local private sector could also engage in the risky business of exploration which if successful could yield high returns as well.

"If the private sectors invests and explores, despite the huge risks, in the Mannar and Cauvery basins and off eastern Sri Lanka.

"There are 20 blocks. You can be the next Asian Rockefeller or Rothschild.

"We're trying to find a suitable partner to explore these deposits and to achieve self-sufficiency in oil and gas."
(EconomyNext)