Oman denies it has agreed to invest in Sri Lanka oil refinery project (updated)

China Harmony Auto Holding

20/03/2019 16:04

(Add comments from head of Sri Lankan Board of Investment and a
source familiar with discussions about the project)
    COLOMBO/DUBAI, March 20 (Reuters) - Oman's oil ministry on
Wednesday denied being part of a $3.85 billion plan to build an
oil refinery in Sri Lanka, a day after the government in Colombo
announced the Arab country's participation.
    Sri Lankan officials told a news conference on Tuesday that 
a joint venture between the Oman oil ministry and a Singapore
investment vehicle owned by India's Accord Group had agreed to
build the 200,000 barrel per day refinery near
Chinese-controlled Hambantota port on the island's south coast.
    The ministry was to take a 30 percent stake, the officials
said, representing what would be Sri Lanka's biggest single
foreign direct investment.  urn:newsml:reuters.com:*:nL3N216330
    "No one on this side of the panel is aware of this
investment in Sri Lanka," Salim al-Aufi, undersecretary of
Oman's ministry of oil and gas, told a news conference on
Wednesday. 
    "It came as news to me, I don't know who is signing the
cheque for $3.8 billion."
    An industry source familiar with the discussions said that
there had been talks concerning the project that involved Oman
but that they were at an early stage.
    The Director General of Sri Lanka's state-run Board of
Investment, Champika Malalgoda, said after the Oman government
denial that as far as she was concerned the deal announced on
Tuesday was still going ahead.
    "We approved the project for a joint venture of Singapore
company and Oman," she said, with the Oman taking a 30 percent
stake in the refinery venture.
    Any big deal in Sri Lanka involving Indian investment will
pose a challenge to China, which had until recently been on
track to be the dominant foreign investor on the island.
    India has become concerned in recent years about China
muscling into Sri Lanka and other countries in a region where
India is the traditional power.
    China is the biggest buyer of Omani oil, importing about 80
percent of the Middle Eastern nation’s overall crude exports in
January, according to an Oman government website.
   

 (Reporting by Shihar Aneez in COLOMBO and Rania El Gamal in
DUBAI, Writing by Nidhi Verma 
Editing by Martin Howell and Kirsten Donovan)
 ((nidhi.verma@thomsonreuters.com; +91 11 49548031; Reuters
Messaging: nidhi.verma.thomsonreuters.com@reuters.net))