Chevron may partner RIL in city gas distribution

US major Chevron Corporation is set to partner Reliance Industries Ltd (RIL) in domestic gas distribution in eight cities across India at an investment of Rs 5,000 crore.

To start with, RIL is planning to set up city gas distribution (CGD) projects in Maharashtra and Andhra Pradesh for supplying natural gas to households, industry and automobiles.

In a proposal to the petroleum ministry, RIL said, "The company wants to set up CGD networks in Visakhapatnam, Kakinada, Vijayawada, Nalgonda and Hyderabad in Andhra Pradesh and Sholapur, Pune and Thane in Maharashtra."

RIL also plans to supply compressed natural gas, sourced from its gigantic field in the Bay of Bengal, to commercial consumers likes hotels, restaurants and hospitals and industries and automobiles.

Earlier, in an email to Business Standard, a Chevron executive had said: "In addition to announcing the agreement to acquire an interest in Reliance Petroleum, RIL and Chevron have also announced the signing of two memoranda of understanding. These cover the principles by which both the companies will optimise the refinery crude oil supply and product marketing and sets out the intent of both companies to pursue collaboration in upstream, domestic natural gas marketing and technology projects in India."

The RIL-Chevron combine will be the fourth player in the city gas distribution business.