Reliance Industries, which has the largest oil and gas acreage among private companies in the country, plans to double its hydrocarbon reserves to over 10 billion barrels of oil equivalents which at current crude oil price works up to $840 billion.Presently, RIL has 4.4 billion barrels of oil equivalent reserves which at the current price of $84 per barrel stands at $369.6 billion.RIL chairman Mukesh Ambani revealed this for the first time during the company's AGM on Friday. Besides India, the company has been acquiring hydrocarbon assets in Columbia, Yemen, Egypt, East Timor and Russia.RIL has got one of the largest gas fields in the Krishna-Godavari basin and has also found oil and gas in Kaveri basin."Currently, the global 2P gross reserve base of Reliance is estimated at about 4.4 billion barrels of oil equivalent. We have set a target of 10 billion barrels of oil equivalent of 2P gross reserves globally," Ambani said.RIL has so far made 36 hydrocarbon discoveries, all named after Reliance patriarch Dhirubhai, including ten in the current year. It owned seven new deepwater blocks under the sixth round of NELP bidding."I am looking forward to the day when Reliance will have a Dhirubhai 100 discovery," Ambani said adding that the company would invest $4 billion of risk capital in the coming years to realise the hydrocarbon potential of the country in addition to $2 billion that it has already spent.The seventh round of NELP bidding is slated next month in which the government is expected to offer in excess of 80 blocks for bidding on both the east and west coasts.
