Sri Lanka inks $3.7bn-deal with Chinese oil giant

China has offered to invest $3.7 billion in Sri Lanka, stated to be the biggest-ever foreign investment in the island nation, to build a state-of-the-art oil refinery at Hambantota as the two countries signed a new plan to upgrade BRI cooperation during Sri Lankan President Anura Kumara Dissanayake's state visit to China.

On Thursday, Dissanayake met Chinese Premier Li Qiang and chairman of the standing committee of the National People's Congress Zhao Leji and pitched for more Chinese investment in his address to Chinese firms. A day earlier, Dissanayake held talks with his Chinese counterpart Xi Jinping following which the two sides signed 15 agreements.

According to a press release by the Sri Lankan president's media division, the deal was "formalised this morning with the signing of an agreement between Sri Lanka's ministry of energy and Sinopec, a leading Chinese international petroleum corporation."

The refinery will have a capacity of two lakh barrels.

China has secured the strategic Hambantota port in the Indian Ocean on a 99-year lease as a debt swap.