Energy Minister Udaya Gammanpila said the new bill on oil exploration, once enacted, would provide for the establishment of a new authority and empowerment of it to deal with oil and gas exploration, a power held by the subject minister.
He said the bill had been presented to Parliament for Second Reading. He said the bill would be taken up in the House as a priority business of the government. He said Sri Lanka had US $ 267 billion oil and gas deposits worth three times the country’s total debt.