RIL outlines growth plan, scouts for overseas buyouts

India's most valuable company, Reliance Industries (RIL), today outlined its growth plan and said it is scouting for oil and gas properties overseas, which will help bring about a better balance between domestic and international operations.

"Reliance continues to accrue oil and gas properties overseas. These overseas oil and gas initiatives would reinforce the domestic effort. It will also bring a better balance between domestic and international operations as well as between onshore and offshore properties," RIL's Chairman and Managing Director, Mukesh Ambani, told shareholders at the company's 35th annual general meeting here.

The petrochemical giant currently has 99,000 square kilometres of acreage under exploration in Oman, Yemen, Colombia, East Timor and Peru.

Ambani said RIL has also commenced drilling its first offshore exploratory well as an operator in the deep waters of Oman block 18, while the averge production from Yemen's Block 9 has reached a level of 4,200 barrels of oil per day (bpd).

On the domestic front, Reliance Industries is planning an aggressive exploration campaign, Ambani said, adding this would take the company to "a higher growth trajectory and transform the energy landscape of India."

"We have planned an aggressive exploration campaign aimed at diversifying our search for new accumulation over the next three years. We plan to drill in majority of our blocks and propose to accelerate our campaign in the Krishna Godavari basin," Ambani said.

"With the new discovery made in the basin, Reliance has had 39 discoveries with an overall success ratio of 52 per cent and a high deepwater success rate of 70 per cent. This is considerably higher than the global average," he added.

The energy major last week announced an oil discovery at a field 130 kilometres away from Ahmedabad in Gujarat, where it has drilled five wells. This is the company's second major find after the offshore MA field in the Krishna-Godavari basin.

"The major deepwater fields have a combined peak capacity of about 5.5 lakh barrels of oil equivalent (boe) per day. This is about 40 per cent of India's current indigenous production," Ambani said.        

"At the current price of crude oil of $80 per barrel, it implies a saving of $11 billion (Rs 53,000 crore) per year in energy imports by India," he added.

Ambani said RIL's gas production level has crossed six Billion Cubic Metres (bcm) and the field was slated for plateau production in the second half of this fiscal.

"Oil production from the D26 has 2.8 million barrels with daily peak production expected by the end of the year," Ambani said.

Initial field development planning or accelerated monetisation of nine more gas discoveries in this plot is underway. We continue to make aggressive plans in the natural gas sector," Ambani said.