Shadow on $900m aid to RIL

A group of US Congressmen has asked the country’s Export-Import (Exim) Bank to suspend $900 million worth of assistance to Reliance Industries Ltd (RIL), until the Mukesh Ambani-led Indian conglomerate stops business with Iran.

In a statement issued here, Congressman Brad Sherman said that he, along with a “bipartisan group of House colleagues”, had sent a letter to the Exim president, calling on the bank to suspend assistance to RIL, until it agreed to stop selling gasoline to Iran.

The letter also calls on Exim to do a better job in the future to ensure that the projects it supports are not in conflict with the US national interests.

Exim has approved two separate loan guarantees worth $900 million, including a $400-million package in August, 2008.

Reliance has been a major supplier of refined petroleum products to Iran. According to some reports, Reliance has at times provided as much as 30 per cent of oil-rich Iran’s need for imported refined petroleum products.

Exim’s assistance was approved to help finance the expansion of Reliance’s refining complex at Jamnagar, the very facility that provides Iran with gasoline.

Reliance’s subsidiary Reliance Petroleum Ltd (RPL) is set to fully commission 580,000-barrels-per-day only-for-exports refinery at Jamnagar by March and, along with its existing 660,000-barrels-per-day facility, would become the world’s largest single-location refinery.