Sri Lanka is expected to decide on a new privately funded 100,000 barrel-per-day refinery in weeks, the state oil firm said, as the government increased security over mounting war fears.

A decision on the $795 million refinery, which will operate alongside an existing 50,000 barrels per day plant, had been expected soon after the November 17 presidential election but was delayed as officials consulted with unions, the Ceylon Petroleum Corp said.
"A decision has not been made on it yet," company chairman Jaliya Medagama told Reuters. "It will be a couple of weeks. No one questions the need for a refinery, the question is how it is funded." The facility will take between three and five years to build once the government gives the go-ahead.
A lack of refining capacity means Sri Lanka, which produces no crude of its own, has to import some 40 percent of its oil products, adding additional costs the island can ill afford after high global crude prices pushed inflation up last year.
Sri Lanka imports 15 million barrels of crude and refined products a year, or more than 40,000 barrels daily, and spent nearly $1 billion on oil imports in the first eight months of 2005, up 34 percent from a year earlier.