India’s top privately run refiner Mukesh Ambani led Reliance Industries is expected to raise crude oil imports by about 22 percent this year as it ramps up production at its giant complex, further stamping its mark on world markets.

To maximise profit margins with its sophisticated refining capability, Reliance Industries is also set to limit African crude imports this year in favour of Middle East grades, if light crude prices continue to strengthen against heavy-sour grades, traders and analysts said.

“I expect Reliance refineries to run at full steam, even if in between there is a small shutdown, they can easily run at about 65 million tonnes,” said a trader familiar with refining operations. Reliance declined comment on traders’ estimates.

This means that the company’s two refineries — the largest facility in the world — will run above their full combined capacity of 1.24 million barrels per day (bpd), higher than last year when its second plant began operating at full rate in the second half.

After the world first saw increasing flows from Reliance in the summer of 2008, with the start of its new 580,000 barrel-per-day (bpd) plant, this year will see the full blast of exports of high-value diesel and gasoline made from a diverse slate of the cheapest available crudes.

Source:http://economictimes.indiatimes.com/news/news-by-industry/energy/oil-gas/Reliance-to-tighten-grip-on-world-fuel-markets/articleshow/5746150.cms

The RIL RNRL Gas Dispute as it came to be known is yet awaiting its final conclusion which will be the judgment from the Supreme Court of India. The dispute stemmed when ADAG controlled RNRL demanded a supply of gas from the D6 block in the Krishna-Godavari eastern offshore fields of the Mukesh Ambani-controlled (Reliance Industries) RIL at $2.34 (Rs. 112) per MMBTU (Million Metric British Thermal Units). RIL rejected the demand on the grounds that the Government approved rate is $4.2 (Rs. 201) per MMBTU.

RIL has appealed in the Supreme Court and the three-member bench of Chief Justice K.G. Balakrishnan, Justice B. Sudershan Reddy and Justice P. Sathasivam reserved its verdict on the gas supply dispute between ADAG’s Reliance Natural Resources Ltd (RNRL) and Reliance Industries Ltd (RIL) in Dec 2009. The bench heard the dispute over the supply of 28 million units of gas for 17 years at USD 2.34 per unit to the Anil Ambani-headed RNRL from the gas fields of Krishna-Godavari basin, awarded to Mukesh Ambani’s RIL.

It has been over two months since the Reliance matter was last heard. The hearing saw several high profile lawyers and senior counsels arguing in the Supreme Court. Harish Salve, representing RIL, Additional Solicitor General Mohan Parasaran representing the Government and Ram Jethmalani and Mukul Rohatgi representing RNRL, were locked in heated arguments till the conclusion of the hearing. Solicitor General, Gopal Subramaniam filed an affidavit on behalf of the Government.

Through the course of this dispute we have seen both ADAG and RIL move the Supreme Court challenging two separate decisions of the Bombay High Court, a malicious ad campaign by Anil Ambani controlled ADAG and altercation of ADAG with government officials like Petroleum Minisiter, Murli Deora. This case has brought into the public eye several details and some discrepancies in the Production Sharing Contract, Gas Utilisation Policy and Gas Pricing policies of the country. The country is waiting with bated breath along with RIL and ADAG for the SC verdict which is expected by mid 2010.

Source:http://news-views.in/adag-ril-awaiting-conclusion-of-the-reliance-saga/

Mukesh Ambani, Chairman and Managing Director of Reliance Industries (RIL) was given the IMC Juran Quality Medal for 2009. While accepting the award at the function hosted by Indian Merchants’ Chamber, Mukesh Ambani said the quality in every quarter is the bedrock of progress.

“As Indians, we need to overcome our ‘chalta hai’ (its okay) attitude. We need to focus on Juran — the global guru on quality — and not jugad (manoeuvring),” said Mukesh Ambani. Insisting on quantity with quality as the way forward, Mr. Ambani said one cannot exist without the other.

The function saw major Indian companies such as Larsen & Tubro, Reliance Infrastructure and Mepco Schlenk Engineering College being presented with the IMC-Ramakrishna Bajaj National Quality Award 2009 in the manufacturing, service, education and healthcare sectors.

IMC RBNQ Outstanding Achievement Trophies and IMC RBNQ Outstanding Achievement Trophies were awarded to around 30 Indian organizations such as Grasim Industries, ACC, Godrej & Boyce, Ashok Leyland, Hindustan Zinc, JSW Steel, BPCL, BHEL, Ambuja Cement etc. Dr. Ashok S Ganguly, Member of Parliament, Rajya Sabha, was the chief guest and gave away the prizes to the companies. He made a special mention that the country should work hard on food security and banish hunger by 2025, the deadline set by the UN to wipe out hunger from the world.

Congratulating the winners, Mukesh Ambani said, “There is no doubt that India can achieve sustainable double digit growth. We are often talking about quantity but also need to talk about quality. Much of India’s growth today is being described and debated purely in quantitative terms and I believe that having achieved 8-9 per cent growth, the time has come for us to think in qualitative terms,” he said.

Stressing on the importance of nurturing the eco system, Mr. Mukesh Ambani said quality products can be produced only if inputs are good. So it is not enough to be an efficient manufacturer but also use quality inputs.

When talking about quality in education, Mukesh Ambani said “The Stanfords and Oxfords of education should be in India”. He added that the world-class university being planned by Reliance Foundation is likely to come up in Delhi or Mumbai.

Source:http://news-views.in/mukesh-ambani-quality-is-the-bedrock-of-progress/

India’s Reliance has sold two naphtha parcels for April loading within a week despite weakening sentiment, traders said on Thursday.It sold a 50,000-55,000-tonne spot parcel for first-half April loading to an oil major at premiums above $20.00 a tonne to Middle East spot quotes on a free-on-board (FOB) basis.

It had also sold via tender 50,000-55,000 tonnes for April 4-8 loading from Sikka port to Glencore at a premium of around $21.50 a tonne to Middle East quotes on a free-on-board (FOB) basis. Traders are expecting India’s exports to stay high at more than 800,000 tonnes in April versus around 900,000 tonnes in March despite falling sentiment.

Source:http://in.reuters.com/article/domesticNews/idINSGE62O0EK20100325

Reliance Retail will soon pilot the retail venture of Office Depot and open the first Hamleys toy store as the Mukesh Ambani-led retailer beefs up its portfolio and expansion plans. Its offerings under the lifestyle umbrella range from books & music, apparel, toys and opticals to jewels and office supplies. ET caught up with Reliance Retail’s president & chief executive-Lifestyle Bijou Kurien for an exclusive interview. Edited Excerpts:

Are the multiple verticals under the Lifestyle division operating profitably?
Both Reliance Time Out, which will grow to 20 stores by 2011, and the relatively smaller-store-sized Reliance Jewels, which will have 50 stores by 2011, broke even last year. Almost half of our 46-odd optical retail stores Vision Express have also broken even. The Marks & Spencer brand has now been repositioned to compete in the mid-market segment in India. We intend to open bigger stores of around 15, 000 to 20, 000 sq ft where merchandise will be extended from apparel to personal care, home ware and accessories. India will also account for a larger sourcing component for Marks & Spencer.

Over a year after joining hands with US-based Office Depot how has the JV progressed?
The Office Depot JV currently operates through a business-to-business relationship where we’ve focused on the small, medium and large office supplies space so far through our joint acquisition of eOfficePlanet, a supplier of office products and services to corporates. We are testing our first retail foray through an Office Depot store in Bangalore.

Has the lifestyle division also set its sights on smaller cities yet?
Reliance Jewels is positioned as a mid-market retailer which doesn’t cater to the everyday low-priced diamond jewellery segment but targets the occasion (wedding, births etc) and adornment-led jewellery segments. Given the fact that the Reliance brand is strong, we’ve positioned some formats such that it can tap into the potential of rural retail without creating a separate brand for smaller markets like Dhanbad and Jamnagar. Vision Express also holds relevance because like jewellery there are few national optical retailers and sight correction is a need that cuts across population strata.
The lifestyle division will also make inroads into smaller cities by co-locating with Reliance Hypermart’s roll out. Classically, hypermarkets are designed in a manner where the area in front of the cash till is allocated for several independent stores. So, in areas such as Rajahmundry and Kolhapur we’ve opted for co-location opportunities for Reliance Jewels and Vision Express with the hypermart. From a cost point of view too, drumming traffic towards independent formats and affordability of standalone rent often becomes a challenge within smaller cities.

How did the discretionary-purchase driven Reliance Time Out perform in a year when consumer sentiment took a beating?
Time Out was the only format within Reliance Retail that grew substantially in the slowdown period. Although, the sheer market size of our offerings is only around Rs 10, 000 crore, as the categories are highly underpenetrated, sales can be strengthened by creating occasions that lend themselves for purchases. This is why we had 200 events across three of our stores within 11 months.
We’ve performed better than competitors because our stores are built on architecting merchandise in line with people’s lives as opposed to being in a purely product-selling mode. Products are just the ambassadors, if you go beyond that by building an exciting store experience then sales don’t get dictated by macro trends. In fact, despite being a discretionary category it clocked 47% like-for-like growth this January.

Time Out corners now also feature within Pantaloon Retail’s Central formats across Bangalore and Ahmedabad. What is the rationale of being present in a rival’s format?
It’s a win-win partnership for both retailers. Central is a premium format where the consumer traffic is relevant to Time Out and the offerings appeal to the audience. Being wants and aspiration-driven, the format’s presence itself drives consumption. From a competitor’s point of view, it offers the option of partnering with a competent player to add to other categories.

Will there be a product overlap given your franchisee agreement with British toy retailer Hamleys?
Given the size of the population, the toy category is fairly underdeveloped in India. If you don’t show toys through large stores, you won’t sell enough of this impulse-driven segment. Most Indian retailers have included toys only as an aspect of multi-category stores so far. Our experience with Reliance Time Out showed that there existed a larger opportunity in having a full-fledged toy store. We will open the first store in Mumbai this month, followed by Chennai.

Source:http://economictimes.indiatimes.com/opinion/interviews/Reliances-new-thrust-on-retail-business/articleshow/5720460.cms

The Supreme Court on Monday dismissed excise department’s plea asking Reliance Industries Ltd (RIL) to pay Rs 17.57-crore differential duty on account of valuation of superior kerosene oil (SKO) and liquefied petroleum gas (LPG) cleared via oil marketing companies.

A Bench headed by Justice SH Kapadia dismissed the department’s plea seeking to levy duty on subsidy received from oil pool account cleared by RIL via oil marketing companies.
The revenue in its appeal alleged that the scrutiny of the records indicated that RIL had collected excess amounts over and above the amount on which central excise duty was paid from oil firms by using commercial invoices against the sale of goods.

It stated that the duty was paid by RIL on ex-destination price, as declared by the Oil Coordination Committee, on the petroleum cleared by the company through Indian Oil Corporation (IOC). It said RIL had transferred petroleum products through pipelines to oil companies and in certain cases the assessee had not produced re-warehousing certificate or proof of payment of duty in lieu of the re-warehousing.

The department had issued two notices in June 2005 and September 2005 demanding differential duty on account of excess collection between July 2000 and February 2005 on the ground that RIL had been clearing SHO and LPG (domestic) to the ultimate consumer via the PSU by paying duty on ex-destination price as against the transaction value.

Besides, the department while demanding differential duty to the extent of more than Rs 17.57 crore had asked the assessee to give proof of payment of duty for non-production of proof of re-warehousing certificates of clearances of petroleum products in transit.

However, the Commissioner in July 2006 while holding that the price of SKO and LPG as determined by the government cannot be the sole consideration for the sale of goods said the additional consideration flowing to the assessee was required to be added to the value of discharging duty liability. It had also confirmed the duty demand to the extent of over Rs 15.16 crore against Rs 17.57 crore.

The assessee’s appeal was dismissed by the Supreme Court in May 2008

Source:http://www.financialexpress.com/news/sc-seeks-reply-from-maha-govt-on-pepsicos-plea/594176/0

Reliance, Tata and Adani Group have emerged as the largest government land buyers of the state.

Together they have bought 4,830 hectare land from the state government in the last three years valued at Rs377.97 crore. This fact came to light in a written response given by revenue minister Anandi Patel to Congress MLA from Kalupur, Mohammed Farooq Shaikh.

Patel informed the state assembly that Reliance had been allotted 1,333 hectares of land for its SEZ in Jamnagar in addition to 57 hectare for marine tank farm and 1225 sq. mt for a refinery related project.

Tata Group has been provided 1,476 hectare, which includes 1,031 hectare for its ITproject in Gandhinagar and 445 hectare for much-hyped Nano car project in Ahmedabad. Tata has paid Rs11.35 crore for IT SEZ land; however, they have not paid any money for the prime land given in Sanand for the Nano car project.
Adani Group has been allotted 1,964 hectare of land for SEZ project in Kutch. “The Gujarat government has earned over Rs377.99 crore revenue by way of land allotment to these industrial giants,” the minister stated.

Source:http://www.dnaindia.com/india/report_reliance-tata-adani-have-bought-4830-hectare-of-gujarat-govt-land-in-3-years_1360768

Union Petroleum Secretary S Sundareshan on Saturday said that south India will start getting natural gas from the Krishna-Godavari basin from 2012.

The Ministry of Petroleum and Natural Gas had called for a meeting of Reliance Industries Ltd (which owns the gas fields) and Gas Authority of India Ltd (which lays pipelines) about ten days ago and told them to implement the project in a “strict timeframe”.

Reliance has been authorised by the government to lay a pipeline from Kakinada to Chennai and this pipeline would further extend to Tuticorin. Reliance would also lay a pipeline between Chennai and Bangalore, he told a press conference here.

The gas would start flowing to Tamil Nadu anytime between March 2012 and the end of that year, he said. There would be connectivity to Madras Fertilisers Ltd and SPIC, he said, referring to the two fertiliser companies, whose operations are suffering for want of natural gas.

On the issue of pricing of petroleum products, he said, “It is not possible to insulate consumers continuously from the volatile international crude price and the government has to take a hard decision in the future.”

At present, subsidy component for petrol is Rs.5 per litre, for diesel Rs. 3, for kerosene Rs. 16 and for LPG Rs. 260 a cylinder. Due to under-pricing the government had incurred an expenditure of Rs.45,000 crore in the current financial year.

Poor people were forced to pay for supplying subsidised petrol and petroleum products to those who were affluent.

The Secretary said oil marketing companies were fully geared to meet the increasing demand for petroleum products, which had been going up at 15 per cent per annum for petrol, 8 to 9 per cent for diesel, and 10 per cent for LPG. In Tamil Nadu, there had been a 10 per cent increase of LPG consumers every year. The State had achieved a coverage of 75 per cent in respect of LPG supply, which might increase to 83 per cent in the next four or five years.

No LPG shortage

There was no shortage of LPG in the State and new connections were being released to prospective consumers without any waiting list and efforts were being made to supply refills expeditiously.

Source:http://www.hindu.com/2010/03/21/stories/2010032159130100.htm

The country’s most valued company RIL’s Chairman and Managing Director Mukesh Ambani today said time has come for India to think of economic growth in qualitative terms.
Observing that India is capable of achieving double-digit growth, he also said, “The power of youth and energy is driving India’s development today. No one doubts India’s ability to achieve double-digit growth on a long and sustained basis.”

“Today, much of India’s growth is being described and debated purely in quantitative terms and I believe that having achieved 8-9 per cent growth, the time has come for us to think in qualitative terms,” Ambani said at the IMC Ramakrishna Bajaj National Quality Award function here.

He further pointed out that the country was paying insufficient attention to the quality of development that it ought to achieve. “We are aspiring for bigger but we are not focusing enough for better,” he said, adding that health and education are the two key developmental indicators.

India needs to address and improve the quality of education as it will be the backdrop on which growth aspirations can be realised, Ambani said.

“After all, if India can produce world-class businesses, why can’t India also produce world class universities. It should be our ambition and our determination to show that the new Stanfords, Harvards and Oxfords in the 21st century will be Indian universities,” Ambani said.

The Reliance Foundation has decided to establish a world class university in India.

“We as a nation must make the transition from company- wide focus on quality to country-wide focus on quality. We can achieve this by linking the quality of India’s development to national pride,” he said.

Today, Indian products and services are far better than foreign brands and the country had achieved world-class in many sectors, he said.

“Dalal Street is as good or better than Wall Street in terms of functioning of the capital market. Bollywood has emerged as a strong competitor to Hollywood. All these have certainly added to our national pride,” Ambani said.

Source:http://economictimes.indiatimes.com/news/news-by-industry/et-cetera/Think-of-economic-growth-in-qualitative-terms-Mukesh-Ambani/articleshow/5703503.cms

Mukesh Ambani led Reliance Industries has made investment of Rs 32,017 crore at the Special Economic Zone at Jamnagar for which the state had given over 1,333 hectare land for Rs 311.74 crore. The project has generated 2096 direct jobs, the state government said today.

Replying to a question asked by Congress MLA Faroq Sheikh regarding land given to Reliance, Tata and Adani groups for setting up projects, the state government provided details about the land allotted to these groups, rates charged by the government and investment made.

In Jamnagar, the state government has given over 12 hectare lands for refinery for Rs 13.47 lakh, 1,333 hectare land for Rs 311.74 crore for SEZ and 57 hectare land for Rs 25 crore for setting up a marine tank farm.

The Tata group has been given land in Gandhinagar for an IT project and in Sanand for the Nano car project.

According to the government, over 1,031 hectare land has been given to the Tata group for Rs 11.35 crore for an IT project where an investment of Rs 11,434 crore would be made generating over 8000 jobs once the entire project becomes operational.

Source:http://economictimes.indiatimes.com/news/economy/infrastructure/RIL-invests-Rs-32017-cr-in-SEZ-creates-2096-jobs-Gujarat-govt/articleshow/5699267.cms