{"id":93582,"date":"2019-10-05T13:27:04","date_gmt":"2019-10-05T20:27:04","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.lankaweb.com\/news\/items\/?p=93582"},"modified":"2019-10-05T13:27:04","modified_gmt":"2019-10-05T20:27:04","slug":"sri-lanka-gives-go-ahead-for-20b-refinery-at-port-of-hambantota","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.lankaweb.com\/news\/items\/2019\/10\/05\/sri-lanka-gives-go-ahead-for-20b-refinery-at-port-of-hambantota\/","title":{"rendered":"Sri Lanka Gives Go-Ahead for $20B Refinery at Port of Hambantota"},"content":{"rendered":"

BY\u00a0THE MARITIME EXECUTIVE\u00a0<\/a><\/strong>2 Courtesy\u00a0 Maritime Executive<\/em><\/span><\/h2>\n\n\n

The underutilized port of Hambantota, Sri Lanka is set to gain a major new tenant. The Sri Lankan government has given its approval to the Singaporean company Sugih Energy International (SEI) to build a $20 billion refinery at the port. The project’s value exceeds the total of all foreign direct investment in Sri Lanka over the past forty year, development minister Malik Samarawickrama told<\/a> Sri Lankan outlet Daily FT.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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In 2010, with financial backing from China and the assistance of Chinese construction companies, Sri Lanka built a greenfield port development at the quiet fishing community of Hambantota. The port project attracted limited use, and it – along with many other infrastructure initiatives – left Sri Lanka deeply indebted to Chinese state banks. In 2017, Sri Lanka gave the final go-ahead to sell 70 percent of the port to state-controlled China Merchants Port Holdings for $1.1 billion, satisfying a portion of its debt burden. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Western analysts have often described Hambantota as a “white elephant” project lacking in commercial viability, but CMPH’s managers insist that they are turning it around. The refinery deal is one of several recent energy-related development announcements at the port. In March, the Sri Lankan government green-lighted a proposal to build a smaller, $3.8 billion refinery complex at Hambantota, with backing from the government of Oman and another Singaporean firm. In addition, in 2018, Chinese investors were cleared to build a $700 million natural gas-powered electrical station at Hambantota. The 400-gigawatt power plant will be fueled with LNG. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Chinese oil major Sinopec holds the rights to provide bunkering at the port of Hambantota. The port’s Chinese managers have signaled their intention to make bunkering – which is a natural complement to oil refining – into a key part of the development strategy for Hambantota. The port is adjacent to the busy east-west sea lanes across the Indian Ocean, and it is roughly at the halfway point between the bunkering mega-hubs of Fujairah and Singapore. 
<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

BY\u00a0THE MARITIME EXECUTIVE\u00a02 Courtesy\u00a0 Maritime Executive The underutilized port of Hambantota, Sri Lanka is set to gain a major new tenant. The Sri Lankan government has given its approval to the Singaporean company Sugih Energy International (SEI) to build a $20 billion refinery at the port. The project’s value exceeds the total of all foreign direct investment […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":true,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[9],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-93582","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-business"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.lankaweb.com\/news\/items\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/93582","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.lankaweb.com\/news\/items\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.lankaweb.com\/news\/items\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.lankaweb.com\/news\/items\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.lankaweb.com\/news\/items\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=93582"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.lankaweb.com\/news\/items\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/93582\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.lankaweb.com\/news\/items\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=93582"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.lankaweb.com\/news\/items\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=93582"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.lankaweb.com\/news\/items\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=93582"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}