RIL to Build World’s Largest Petro Complex

Amid a jumble of plans to increase investment in existing projects and grow through consolidation of existing operations, Mukesh Ambani, chairman of India’s Reliance Industries Limited (RIL, www.ril.com), said the company will invest up to $9 billion through 2011 to create the world’s largest petroleum and petrochemicals complex at Jamnagar in Gujurat, according to a report by Industrial Info Resources (www.industrialinfo.com).

RIL plans to build the world’s largest combined-cycle, coke-gasification complex with an annual capacity of six million tons. The new petrochemicals complex will have an annual capacity of two million tons of olefins and match downstream capacities. Industrial Info reports that Ambani said RIL intends to invest $4 billion in hydrocarbons and expand paraxylene capacity from 1.9 tons per annum (TPA) to 4.5 million This will give the complex a 15 percent share of global capacity. Ethylene capacity at the site will be doubled to 3.2 million TPA. RIL expects Jamnagar to be completed ahead of schedule at nearly half the capital cost of international refineries of a similar size.

The company will extend its petrochemical business to high growth markets, such as Russia and Egypt, with a strategy of building strength in India first and then leveraging it to build a global business. Industrial Info says an acquisitions-led strategy is already in place with recent deals in Malaysia and Africa.

RIL will invest a further $4 billion of risk capital to realize the hydrocarbon potential of India, according to Industrial Info. This is in addition to the $2 billion already invested in the sector. The first gas discoveries in Krishna Godavari are expected to be in production in 2009. RIL expects the gas production rate to be equivalent to about 500,000 barrels of crude oil per day, representing 30 percent of the country’s current crude oil import.