Sri Lanka, Sept. 16 -- Minister of Energy Udaya Gammanpila says that Sri Lanka has enough petroleum resources in Mannar to sort out the country's USD 47 billion debt many times over.

Addressing an official media briefing to announce the first airborne survey in Sri Lanka to map oil and gas resources at the Mannar Basin, the minister said the country is set to earn valuable foreign exchange by selling the data obtained from the survey.

The Ministry of Energy in collaboration with UK-based geographical survey company Bell Geospace recently launched an airborne gravity, gravity gradiometry and magnetic survey to detect petroleum resources in the shallow waters of the Mannar Basin.

The survey is said to be first of its kind conducted in Sr...