Iran to Fund Sri Lanka Refinery Expansion

Sri Lanka hopes to fund a project to double the capacity of its only refinery with a $1.5bn loan from Iran.

Sri Lankan Prime Minister Susil Premajayantha told Bloomberg that Iran may completely finance the expansion.

The two-year expansion project will increase the Ceylon Petroleum refinery’s processing capacity to 100,000 barrels a day by early 2011.

Sri Lanka imports as much as 60% of its crude oil requirements from Iran and hopes to strike oil in the near future.