Colombo/New Delhi, Apr 5 (UNI) India, Sri Lanka and the United Arab Emirates signed an agreement in Colombo today to make Trincomalee an energy hub, during the visit of Prime Minister Narendra Modi to Colombo.

India and Sri Lanka also signed an agreement for a high voltage direct current interconnection which will allow for the export and import of power.

The cable has been in the works for many years.

Prime Minister Modi also mentioned the multi-product fuel pipeline planned between Trincomalee and India.

Trincomalee has 99 World War II era tanks of which a few are already used by the Sri Lanka unit of Indian Oil Corporation and Ceylon Petroleum Corporation has allocated some for its use.

A joint venture company is in charge of the rest. Sri Lanka also proposed that an oil refinery be built in Trincomalee.

Elaborating on the MoU, Indian Foreign Secretary Vikram Misri said: “This is an MOU between India, Sri Lanka and the United Arab Emirates. At the present moment, the way this is structured, it is a government-to-government MOU in order to provide the enabling framework, and to set out some of the broad terms of reference for this cooperation.”

“The immediate next step that will be enabled by this framework MOU is the identification and the nomination of specific agencies and entities that could be government entities or private sector entities or could be entities related to the governments themselves that will try and realize the business-to-business part of this agreement,” he added.

He said the actual projects to be carried out will be discussed in detail by the designated business entities of the three sides.

“The UAE is a major energy partner for India. It is a strategic partner for India in the energy space, and it was therefore an ideal partner for this particular exercise that is being done for the first time in this region,” he added.

FS Misri said the exact contours of the UAE role will be elaborated once the B2B discussions kick off under this MOU.

A multi-product pipeline is one of the things that will be discussed under this particular MOU, he added.

Referring to the Trincomalee tank farms, he said that while some of them are being developed and utilized by Lanka IOC, there are many more lying unused, and have not been put to use as yet.

“There is a possibility that they will also be developed and utilized under this particular MOU.”

The MoU comes as China’s state energy firm Sinopec has signed a deal to build a $3.2-billion oil refinery in Sri Lanka's southern port city of Hambantota.

UNI RN