Minister of Fisheries and Agriculture, Dr. Mohamed Shainee has stated that it cannot now be said that there is no possibility of finding crude oil in Maldives now that source rocks which are normally spotted near area's which contain oil has been found in the Maldives.
He made this remark at the press conference held by the Economic Council at the President's Office.
Dr. Shainee said that the detailed report of the survey which was conducted to locate oil in the country would be available during the first quarter of the coming year.
He added that the search for oil is an extensive process which requires various numbers of researches to be conducted, while stating that a geological survey needs to be carried out in order to successfully locate the areas containing oil and gases.
Since the Maldivian sea territory is rather big, the process would be highly expensive. On that noted, the government had made arrangements to carry out the researches and surveys in partnership with European companies during a recent trip.
The minister further revealed that two European companies had shown interest to help in the expeditions, while adding that works of signing a Memorandum of Understanding (MOU) with them are underway.
With the discovery of source rocks it cannot be said there is no possibility of finding crude oil- Dr. Shainee
