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Even though the country as a whole imports more oil than what is produced locally, India is now the top petroleum products exporting nation in Asia.

India is now the largest petroleum products exporter in Asia, surpassing South Korea. According to the data compiled by oil and metal information provider Platts, India’s gross exports currently average 1 million barrels a day, inching past South Korea which exports 0.9 million barrels a day.

With the commissioning of a new refinery by Reliance Industries at Jamnagar and Essar Oil increasing refinery output at Vadinar, India overtook South Korea by mid-2009 and has since then consistently maintained the lead position.

India’s average petroleum products export grew from 0.77 million barrels a day in January 2009 to one million barrels a day in August 2009. In the current year, the average oil products export from India stands at 1.07 million while South Korea exports average 0.88 million.

In fact, India’s refining capacity at 3.69 million barrels a day is the third largest in Asia after China and Japan, which have a refining capacity of 9.6 million bpd and 4.64 bpd respectively. Platts’ compilation is based on the data from individual countries.

“Both Reliance Industries’ Jamnagar and Essar’s Vadinar refineries contribute more than 90 per cent of the petroleum products exports while the rest is by public sector oil companies,” said Ms Vandana Hari, Asia Editorial Director, Platts.

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I was thinking that it would be a 1:22 or 1:24 share swap.  That was going to be too much of a loss for me.  1:16 is not bad considering that my average price for RPL is quite ok.  So, over a period of few months the merger will be through and i will be holding the shares of Reliance Industries. A much better opportunity moving towards a more diversified company from a company with interests in just refining.

Was it unexpected? Not really.  For anyone who has knowledge of the past record of Reliance Industries, they have always done this.  Merging their subsidiaries with the parent company.  The only thing i was worried about was the merger ratio.  That’s why i kept buying the RPL stock when it was below 100 rupees only.

Reliance Industries Ltd (RIL), India’s largest company by market capitalisation, has offered one share for every 16 held in Reliance Petroleum (RPL) to merge its refinery subsidiary.  RIL will issue 69.2 million new shares to shareholders of RPL in order to buy back the company and will have 3.7 million shareholders after the merger. RIL’s equity capital will rise to Rs 1,643 crore and the promoter’s holdings will fall by 2 per cent to 47 per cent, the company said in a statement issued today.

Alok Agarwal, RIL’s chief financial officer, told reporters here today that no fresh treasury stock would be created and the parent’s holding in the petroleum unit would be cancelled. Almost 200 million existing treasury shares would continue, he added.

RIL’s absorption of RPL will be tax neutral for both the entities. “This merger is not about tax benefits. As far as taxation is concerned, the SEZ refinery is a separate undertaking. Both refineries will retain their tax benefits,” Agarwal said.

“This is about size, this is about diversification,” Agarwal said, adding the merger would give RIL the ability to take on projects much larger than done before.  RIL has set April 1, 2008 for the date of the amalgamation. The takeover is subject to approvals by the high courts at Mumbai and Ahmedabad.

Full article here.

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India’s largest private sector company, Reliance Industries Ltd., said it began producing crude oil from its KG-D6 block of the Krishna Godavari Basin on Sept 17, confirming media reports. Initial production levels are at 5,000 barrels of crude per day. Peak hydrocarbon production of 550,000 barrels of oil equivalent per day (boepd) is expected over the next six to eight quarters, the company announced at a press event over the weekend.

‘India’s current hydrocarbon oil and gas production is 1.3 million boepd. With Reliance’s contribution in the energy sector, India’s indigenous production of hydrocarbons will increase by over 40 percent in the next 18 months,’ chairman and managing director Mukesh Ambani told reporters.

The energy and petrochemicals major estimated that the production from KG-D6 facility will save India an annual foreign exchange outflow of $20 billion.

The KG-D6 block in Krishna Godavari basin is located in the Bay of Bengal, off the coast of eastern state of Andhra Pradesh. RIL holds 90 percent participating interest and Niko Resources Ltd. holds the balance.

P.M.S. Prasad, president and chief executive, oil & gas at RIL said Hindustan Petroleum Corp. Ltd. (HPCL) and Chennai Petroleum Corp. Ltd., have sent in bids for buying the crude. Prasad added the contracts with HPCL are likely to be more of spot contracts.

Mukesh and Nita Ambani with jars of crude oil from the Krishna Godavari basin

Prasad said: ‘We will be going in a next few days to gas productionStarting from January we will be producing gas.’ Mukesh Ambani’s RIL and Reliance Natural Resources Ltd. (RNRL), which is owned by estranged brother Anil Ambani, have been entangled in a legal battle which is centered on the pricing of gas from the KG Basin.

News courtesy: Forbes

Above pictures courtesy: Reliance Petroleum,  Motortrend and Rediff

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