Reliance's Singapore office gets new head, new business development role - sources

By Jessica Jaganathan and Seng Li Peng

SINGAPORE (Reuters) - Reliance Global Energy Services, a Singapore-based unit of Reliance Industries, has appointed a new chief executive and created a business development role to expand its trading activities, industry sources said on Friday.

Mike Omar, chief executive of Reliance Global Energy Services since August 2009, will become president of business development, a newly created role, tasked to expand the company's portfolio and bringing in new business, the sources said.

This could expand beyond the current focus on oil into other commodities such as coal, one of the sources said.

Omar will also look into expanding trading volumes for Reliance, both within oil price agency Platts' pricing process and via other platforms, the source added.

K Vishwanathan replaces Omar as chief executive, the sources said. Vishwanathan was previously deputy chief finance officer of Reliance's refining and marketing division in Mumbai and has been with the company for more than seven years, according to his LinkedIn profile.

Prior to Reliance, he was deputy general manager (finance) in the international trade division of Bharat Petroleum Corp Ltd.

Reliance did not immediately respond to an email query about the appointments sent by Reuters.

Reliance's Singapore office was set up in 2009, but started its own trading book last year and currently has fewer than four oil products traders, industry sources said. It recently started crude trading and in August sold at least one Oman cargo in the Platts pricing process, the sources said.

It could also consider buying middle distillates cargoes from North Asia and re-selling them, which is unusual for the company as it has its own cargoes to market from its 580,000 barrels-per-day export-oriented Jamnagar refinery in India, one of the sources said.

"I think they will still market 80 percent of cargoes from their own refinery and the rest from trading", the source said.

"They are doing more hedging now especially in the over-the-counter market."

Reliance is currently leasing storage tanks to store clean oil products in Vopak terminal, an industry source said. Sources estimated the storage capacity to be around 200,000 cubic metres.

(Editing by David Holmes)