Iran and Sri Lanka started a new round of negotiations over exploring oil in Indian Ocean after the arrival of Sri Lankan Minister of Technology and Research Achchige Don Susil Premajayantha to Tehran, according to the Research Institute of Petroleum Industry of Iran. Mr. Premajayantha is after conveying the science and technology of Iran to Sri Lanka in areas of exploring and refining oil.

Sri Lanka has recently started its initiative in the area of oil industry and in order to open their laboratory for testing different engine oils and to have the capacity in industries of bitumen and asphalt concrete pavement, they visited the pilots of downstream petroleum industry at the campus of the Research Institute of Petroleum Industry of Iran,” recounted Mansour Bazmi, Deputy of the Institute for Technology and International Relations.

Bazmi highlighted that the Sri Lankan delegation showed great deal of interest in Nano-section pilots and voiced their interests for benefiting from the experience and expertise of Iranian specialists of the Research Institute of Petroleum Industry.

As the Sri Lankans have recently found new sources of oil in the Indian Ocean, they are willing to expand their exploratory efforts and take advantage of the Iranians’ experience in the area, and that is the reason behind the recent visits and talks,” reassured the Iranian official of the Research Institute of Petroleum Industry saying that the Islamic Republic of Iran is ready to give hand to the new born oil industry of Sri Lanka.

Bazmi maintained that the current visit is to co-ordinate future agreements to have a set of MoUs (Memoranda of Understanding) signed in the near future.

In his recent meeting of this week with Iranian Foreign Minister, Mr. Premajayantha had told Mohammad Javad Zarif that Sri Lanka is still, as was in the past, demanding Iran’s crude oil and oil products.”

In his visit to Tehran, Mr. Premajayantha is accompanied by the head of Sri Lanka’s Industrial Technology Institute (ITI), the head of foreign relations office of Ministry of Technology and Research, and the head of National Science & Technology Commission of Sri Lanka.