Reliance Industries (RIL) and Chevron Corporation today announced the signing of an agreement for purchase of 5% equity of Reliance Petroleum (RPL) by Chevron India Holdings Pte, Singapore, a wholly-owned subsidiary of Chevron Corporation, for $300 million.The agreement provides Chevron the right to acquire an additional 24% equity stake in RPL on conclusion of the collaboration agreements between Chevron and Reliance. If Chevron acquires additional equity, this will rank as one of the largest investments from any multinational company in a single project in India. This will also be one of the largest foreign direct investment in India.In addition to this agreement, Reliance also signed two MoUs with Chevron. The first MOU sets out the principles of partnership by which Reliance and Chevron plan to optimise the crude supply and product offtake and marketing of the RPL refinery. Under this MoU, Reliance and Chevron will jointly evaluate application of mutually selected refinery technology. The MOU also envisages that the parties would co-operate towards setting up a technology development centre in India.The second MOU sets out the intent of both companies to collaborate in other areas in the energy value chain.
