Sri Lanka, China Discuss $3b Refinery

Sri Lanka is in talks with two Chinese companies about investing up to $3 billion to build a new refinery at its Chinese-controlled port, a top government official said on Friday. Sri Lanka wants to build a new refinery in its southern Hambantota Port where China Merchants Port Holdings has a 99-year lease to handle commercial operations, Reuters reported. Sri Lanka’s sole oil refinery, state-run Ceylon Petroleum Corporation’s decades-old 50,000 bpd plant, was originally configured to run on Iranian crude and Sri Lanka had to import more refined oil products after US sanctions led it to stop imports from Iran. Mangala Yapa, a director at the state-run Board of Investment, said two Chinese companies had put forward a joint venture proposal for the refinery, which is expected to produce 5 million tons per annum with an investment of between $2.5 billion and $3 billion. He did not name the Chinese firms.