RIL plans Rs. 78,000-cr projects, refinery to come up in Jamnagar

New Delhi: After announcing plans to invest $30 billion (Rs 1.8 lakh crore) till 2016 across businesses, Mukesh Ambani-led Reliance Industries Ltd (RIL) is gearing up for another big investment of $13 billion (Rs 78,000 crore) to set up its third refinery-cum-petrochemical complex at Jamnagar in Gujarat.

Reliance already operates the world’s biggest refining complex in Gujarat, where its two refineries process about 1.4 million barrels per day (bpd) of crude oil.

The company has sought environment approvals to set up a $12.8-billion upgrade to its Jamnagar complex including a 4,00,000-bpd refinery, some polymer units as well as a 450-megawatt pet coke-based power plant.

A Reuters report said the proposed new refinery of RIL would process cheap, heavy grades of crude that are increasingly available in Asia as the US shale boom has cut demand there.

While a RIL spokesperson refused comments, a source close to RIL confirmed that the company has indeed applied for environmental clearances last year.

“The evaluation for this project is at a nascent stage and no concrete decision has been taken yet... It is too early to say how things shape up in the coming years... as of now, the company has announced plans until 2016 and these are long-term investments,” a source close to RIL said.

“The approvals were sought by the company last year... it’s now in May that the environment ministry wrote back to Reliance asking the company to meet some conditions for securing clearances to its projects,” he added.

Sources also said that RIL has decided to put up this refinery-cum-allied units at the same location in Jamnagar as the complex site has sufficient land and infrastructure to support a third such unit.

Disclaimer: This information has been collected through secondary research and IBEF is not responsible for any errors in the same.