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Message: <blockquote data-quote="saraprobe" data-source="post: 744307" data-attributes="member: 13914">UAE to be Lanka’s largest foreign investorETA Aston Group to invest US 1.2 billion in mega oil refinery in HambantotaBy Santhush FernandoThe United Arab Emirates (UAE) is to soon become Sri Lanka’s largest investor with the third largest conglomerate in UAE - ETA Ascon Group of Companies giving a pledge to invest a staggering US Dollar 1.2 billion (Rupees 132 billion) in a mega oil refinery export project in Hambantota.The investor would target the refinery monopoly market of Singapore, which is Dubai’s number one competitor, The Nation Economist learns.“Since Singapore is our competitor we hope to target countries in the Fareast where Singapore is exporting at the moment. We would look at Indonesia, Thailand, Burma, Bangladesh and most other Asian countries,” Sathak Abdul Kadar, Director of Transasia Star Refinery Lanka (Pvt) Ltd said in an exclusive interview with The Nation Economist.400 acres of Mahaweli land in Mirrijjawila has been earmarked and already allocated for the project. Altogether 1,000 acres is needed for both the project and its infrastructure, while only 400 will be allocated and the remainder is to be purchased by the company.“400 acres would have been adequate in Colombo but here we have to provide accommodation colonies for over 1,500 employees with houses, schools and even hospitals,” he added.The Board of Investment (BoI) of Sri Lanka has given the initial green light laying down a number of conditions which will do away with the bottlenecks plaguing most BoI ventures.“The BoI has laid lot of conditions. For example we must start work within two years and also finish the project on time. We are in the final stage of finalizing this and anticipate that the agreement would be entered into by next month,” Kadar added.“A project of this magnitude of course will have a long gestation period and will take at least four years to come about. Initial capacity would be 100,000 barrels per day which is nearly Sri Lanka’s total daily consumption. At present only 50 per cent of Sri Lanka’s total requirement or around 50,000 barrels a day is met by Ceylon Petroleum Corporation (CPC) refinery while the rest has to be imported as refined products”. “Although ours is totally meant for export, after four to five years from now, we will assess the local demand supply if necessary. That will be about after two years from the commissioning of the plant. However our main intention is to import crude oil and export end products for the international commodity market.”Single Point Buoy Mooring Pipelines will be set up three kilometers off the seas of Mirrijjawila, one for intake of crude oil and one for ships that will not have to visit the Hamabantota Port.The Parent company of Transasia Star Refinery Lanka (Pvt) Ltd- ETA - Ascon Group is a joint venture between Dubai-based Al Ghurair Group and Amana Investments Ltd of Hong Kong. Al Ghurair Group is the third largest conglomerate in UAE with over 100 years experience in the oil industry.Al Ghurair is fully diversified, with major business interests in banking, insurance, shipping, electro-mechanical, education, power, trading, natural food services, construction, cement and aluminum industries in over twenty countries. With this investment in the Hambantota Refinery Project, Dubai based ETA-Ascon becomes the largest single foreign-funded investment project in the country, surpassing Dialog Telekom which was hitherto number one with total investment of over Rs 90 Billion (US $ 818 million).<a href="http://www.nation.lk/2007/08/12/busi1.htm" target="_blank">Nation Economist</a></blockquote>

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