The two companies signed a Letter of Intent to float a joint venture company that will offer services for deep water drilling in Sri Lanka, when the opportunity arises.
Early seismic surveys off Sri Lanka’s west coast shows potential oil deposits, with tentative plans to throw it open for investors next year, though no target date has even been announced.
”The intention of this joint venture is to prepare and train a unit that is capable of handling oil and gas exploration in Sri Lanka. We will begin training immediately and will employ about 10 to 12 engineers,” Nimal Cooke, Executive Director, Projects, at the Maharaja Organisation told journalists on Monday.
The unit also hopes to develop engineering, equipment and managment services, but Project Engineer at Aker Kvaerner Ranjith Molegoda said more detailed plans would be available in about two years.
The companies declined to elaborate on plans should oil exploration in Sri Lanka be shelved yet again, but said potential exists to use the pool of trained people for drilling work in the region.
”The timescale of this job will depend on the government. We need to get our act together and we are not too early by any means. Our idea is that before oil exploration begins, we want to train some engineers,” Cooke said.
The Capital Maharaja Organisation is a diversified group with interests in manufacturing, marketing, exports, communications, media, information technology, foods and packaging among others.Aker Kvaerner is a Norwegian based provider of engineering and construction services and technology products for industries like oil and gas, refining, chemicals, mining and power generation.
