The Ministry said the Eastern Echo DMCC would launch a project for data acquisition, including 2D and 3D seismic, in selected offshore areas around Sri Lanka, at no cost to the Government.  The Minister said collecting data would be the initial work and within eight weeks Eastern Echo expected to the get the data.

“From there we will take the next step. We were very concerned and interested in getting the exploration started. We will know for sure that we would have gas and oil. We are on a positive track and we can’t give a date or what will happen in the future but to do exploration we need to have the data first,” he said.

The survey vessel called at the Colombo Port on Saturday and the operations commenced ceremonially this morning with the participation of Minister Arjuna Ranatunga.(Indika Sri Aravinda)

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