RPL may enter pharma business

Reliance Petroleum Ltd could undertake activities like manufacturing and formulating pharmaceuticals, biochemical and medicinal preparations, according to the company's memorandum of association (MoA).

Reliance has also included a host of downstream and upstream activities apart from refining of petroleum and petroleum products in the MoA.

Reliance currently owned a company called Reliance Pharmaceuticals (India) Private Ltd, which was floated in 1999.

The main objective of the company is to manufacture, sell and purchase pharma products.

However, according to the balance-sheet of Reliance Pharma, the company has yet to start any activities.

Reliance Industries is the main promoter of RPL.

Executive director of RPL, Nikhil R Meswani, maintained that the company would now concentrate only on refining.

He was in Kolkata as part of the IPO roadshow of Reliance Petroleum.

Meswani told Business Standard that priority of the group is to complete the 5.8 lakh barrel per day refinery at Jamnagar in Gujarat, which would make Jamnagar the biggest refinery base in the world.

Besides refinery, RPL is also setting up a nine lakh tonne per annum polypropylene plant.

The project is likely to be completed by December 2008.

"I know there are few things in MOA but now we are concentrating on refinery only. We are not considering any other thing now," he said.

Interestingly, the MOA says that the objective of RPL would be to carry out in India or elsewhere the business of exploration and development and production of crude oil, associated gas, and natural gas resources.

"It could take on lease, purchase, or otherwise oil wells, oil fields, gas wells and gas fields onshore and offshore," the MoA says.

The MoA even added that the exploration activity could be carried out solely or through collaborations and partnership.

This has assumed significance because global oil major Chevron has picked up five per cent stake in RPL through a private placement.

Meswani ruled out any possibility of joint exploration of oil blocks by RPL and Chevron in India or abroad.

"It is not there in the agreement," he said.