Energy Minister Anura Karunathilaka has given Parliament a full timeline for Sri Lanka’s offshore petroleum licensing round, setting commercial production as a 2032 target, the Daily FT reported.
Bidding opened in August and stays open for six months, closing in February or March 2027. Evaluation runs through 2027, followed by negotiations with successful bidders. Licences are to be finalised from October 2027 and the process concluded by the end of that year.
What bidders must put up
Companies bidding for exploration and production rights through the Petroleum Development Authority of Sri Lanka (PDASL) must submit signature bonuses of about $5,000, along with proposed production, royalty and profit-sharing terms, and development plans covering the full arc from exploration to production.
Successful bidders get six months to mobilise and three years to explore, extendable to eight. Commercial production must begin within that window, after which assets are held for 20 years.
The acreage
The Sri Lanka Licensing Round 2026 (SL2026-01) covers four offshore blocks spanning nearly 34,000 sq km in the Mannar Basin. The round was launched in August. The 2032 production target depends on seismic surveys and drilling confirming recoverable resources.
Sri Lanka has two existing Mannar Basin gas discoveries — Dorado and Barracuda, both made in 2011 — with combined P50 estimates of 839 billion cubic feet. PDASL Director General Dr. Neil De Silva said “the upside potential at Barracuda alone could be at least four times its current estimate.”
The marketing campaign includes investor engagement at the World Energies Summit in London on 29-30 September, a virtual briefing on 21 October, and the Asia Petroleum Geoscience Conference in Kuala Lumpur on 16-17 November.
Not reported
The Daily FT does not say how many companies have registered interest or accessed the data room, which opened on 1 September. No other verified newsroom had filed on the Minister’s parliamentary statement at the time of writing.
