Reliance Industries (RIL) will double its petroleum refining capacity to 60 million tonne entailing an investment of Rs 25,000 crore.The company has also decided to demerge its power, financial services and telecom business into seperate entities in which RIL shareholders will get proportionate stakes.The capacity at the Jamnagar refinery would be doubled to 60 million tonne by the second half of 2008-09 involving an investment of $5.7 billion, chairman and managing director Mukesh Ambani said while addressing the AGM today.The benefits of the expanded capacity would accrue from 2009-10, Mukesh said, adding the capacity addition would make RIL the largest petroleum refiner at any single point in the world.According high priority to crude oil exploration, Mukesh announced an investment of Rs 17,600 crore for upstream and downstream projects in the petroleum sector.Dwelling on the reorganisation of businesses following the settlement with his younger brother Anil Ambani, Mukesh said RIL would demerge power, financial and telecommunication services - businesses that are now with Anil Ambani - into three seperate entities.The reorganisation would unlock shareholder value and all RIL shareholders would receive equal treatment under the reorganisation, he said.RIL has appointed Crisil, Deloitte, Amarchand Mangaldas and JM Morgan Stanley to work out details of the reorganisation scheme, he added.Mukesh said RIL has made 10 more oil and gas discoveries including six in the Krishna-Godavari basin and at an onshore block in Yemen."The three oil discoveries in Yemen with an estimated initial flow rate of 5,000-8,000 barrels per day were expected to start production by the end of this year," he added.The commercial viability of coal bed methane blocks in Sohagpur in Madhya Pradesh has been established, Mukesh said.Reliance would increase its polyster manufacturing capacity by 5.5 lakh tonne per year in the current financial year. This would take the total polyster capacity to two million tonne per year, he said."RIL has planned major initiatives for the life sciences sector, which would eventually lead to the larger world of healthcare," Mukesh said.
