News: Mukesh Ambani to meet Putin personally

(PTI 24/01/2007) New Delhi - Reliance Industries Ltd (RIL) is keen on setting up a mega petrochemical plant in Russia and its top boss Mukesh Ambani may explore possibilities when he meets Russian President Vladimir Putin here Thursday.

Ambani put off his visit to Davos for the World Economic Forum meeting to be part of delegation-level discussions between India and Russia Thursday, industry sources said.

The RIL Chairman may get to meet Putin personally, but company officials did not confirm the meeting.

Reliance is interested in setting up a large petrochem plant in Russia to tap the market in Europe and Central Asia.

The company is looking at either making petrochemicals from natural gas or refinery products. While it is open to taking up development of a gas field for the purpose, the firm may also modernise an existing oil refinery or even set up a new one to make naphtha for the petrochemical unit, they said.

Reliance officials were tight-lipped about Ambani's interest in Russia.

Moscow has 41 oil refineries with a total crude oil processing capacity of 5.44 million barrels a day. However, many refineries are inefficient, ageing, and need upgradation.

Russia's 2005-08 economic development plan focuses on reconstruction and upgrading of refineries so that the refineries can convert a higher level of crude and increase production of high quality light oil products, catalysts and raw material for the petrochemical industry.

Sources, however, said unlike state-run Oil and Natural Gas Corp, Reliance may not be very keen on participating in oil and gas exploration as Russia was going through structural changes and would like the present 'resource nationalisation' sphere to settle down before venturing into it.

Sources said ONGC wants to use Putin's visit to make a case for its participation in Sakhalin-III project in the Far East Russia as also a stake in the Trebs and Titov exploration blocks in Timan Pechora.

In 2003-04, ONGC had formed a consortium with Reliance Industries and Indian Oil Corp (IOC) for buying out majority stake in Sibneft, the fifth largest oil company in Russia, for about $ 15-billion.

ONGC had also involved Russian state-run Rosneft in the acquisition by offering it 26 per cent stake and joint operator-ship but the acquisition could not be completed due to procedural delays on part of the state-run firm.

Since Sibneft, Reliance has not looked at any oil property in Russia.