Jamnagar seen as petrochem hub

Jamnagar will become the world's largest petroleum refinery with a capacity to process 124 million barrels a day, Reliance Industries Chairman Mukesh Ambani said at the company's 32nd AGM today.

Providing a status report on the company's oil and gas activities, Mukesh Ambani said Reliance had made crude oil discoveries in the MA1 well in the deep water D6 block in the Krishna Godavari basin.

He said crude had also been found in two wells in the KG-III 6 shallow water block. "We want to create a global portfolio of exploration assets," Ambani said.

"With our expansive drilling programme, covering a third of the country's prospective areas, I am confident of coming out periodically with good news on discoveries," he said

Reliance has set up 1,218 retail outlets, which Mukesh Ambani claimed is the world's largest petroleum retailing network to be created in just two years. The Jamnagar refinery, he said, was built at a capital cost that is among the lowest in terms of $ per complexity barrel.

Mukesh Ambani said the East Coast - West Coast gas pipeline being implemented by the company is on schedule. The pipeline will be managed by Reliance Gas Transportation Infra Ltd.

He promised delivery to consumers was envisaged by the second half of 2008-09. He also said the delivery of gas was happening within six years of discovery of gas in KG 6.

On the international front, Ambani said production at Yemen stood at 2,000 barrels per day, peaking to 20,000 barrels per day in 2007. Exploration in Oman, he said, was progressing ahead of schedule.

Reliance is also conducting a seismic survey in the Pacific Ocean off the coast of Columbia. Also, it is involved in an exploration block in oil-rich East Timor.

Mukesh Ambani told shareholders Reliance had forged a strategic investor relationship with the $194 billion Chevron Corporation of the US.

The relationship with Chevron was being developed around two objectives: First to optimise crude supply, product offtake and marketing from the refinery and secondly to collaborate in other areas of the energy value chain.