Reliance Retail has opened its 25th Reliance Trends store in the country at City Centre Mall in Mangalore. Spread over 13,000 sq ft, the Mangalore store offers more than 100 Indian and international brands, according to a company press release.

Reliance Trends is the apparel, luggage and accessories specialty store. It has presence in places like Delhi, Gurgaon, Bangalore, Hyderabad, Mumbai, Ahmedabad, Kochi, Vishakhapatnam, Chennai, Vijayawada, Belgaum, Vadodara and Amritsar, the press release added.

With an aim to provide consumers with a wide range of high quality products at competitive prices, RRL had launched a chain of jewellery stores under the brand name ‘Reliance Jewels’. With the opening of its new store in Nashik, RRL has now 21 jewellery stores in select cities in the country.

“Reliance Jewels stores offer consumers an unparalleled range of jewellery, backed by the assurance of hallmarked gold and certified diamonds, in an unmatched shopping ambience. We have received a very positive response from our customers across India and are confident that the Reliance Jewels experience will be appreciated by our customers here in Nashik too,” a company official said.

The new jewellery store in Nashik, which is located in City Centre Mall here, will offer a wide range in gold, diamond and wedding jewelry with a wide choice of more than thousands of exquisitely crafted designs from across the country to make it a one-stop shopping destination for fine jewellery.

The range encompasses stunning designs in Kolkata Filigree, Kundan & Polki, Designer Antique, Timeless Naqashi, Hyderabad Ruby and Emerald collections, Temple Jewellery, Fusion collection and exquisite Bridal Jewellery, Plus exclusive diamond jewellery and Solitaire collections in distinctive designs, finish and superior quality

Source:http://news-views.in/reliance-jewels-opens-store-in-nashik/

India’s Reliance Industries, which runs the world’s biggest refining complex, made a rare purchase of Russian Urals crude for July-loading, as the arbitrage window for Western cargoes remains open, trade sources said yesterday.

Reliance bought one Very Large Crude Carrier (VLCC), or 2.0 million barrels of Urals from oil trader Gunvor, the sources said.

The company also purchased the Urals cargo in April, they said, nearly a year after its last purchase of the medium-sour crude.

Reliance’s daily crude oil purchases rose 42 percent in April from March, when it also bought Australian heavy crude Pyrenees for the first time.

Since the startup of the new plant in December 2008, Reliance has been diversifying its crude slate, making several new and rare purchases, capitalising on the complexity of its plants that allow it to improve margins by processing heavy grades.

Reliance, which runs the refining complex at Jamnagar in western Gujarat state, imported nearly 1.42 million barrels per day (bpd) of crude last month, up from 998,350 bpd in March and from 945,100 bpd a year ago, data showed yesterday.

“It appears Reliance is making up for Iran crude shortfall and looking at diverse sources. Its crude from the Middle East, especially from Saudi Arabia has come down,” said a trade source.

Reliance has not renewed a contract to import crude oil from Iran for financial year 2010, industry sources have said.

Narrowing Brent/Dubai Exchange of Futures for Swaps (EFS) also offered opportunities for flows from Europe and West Africa to Asia, the sources said, a trend reflected in Reliance’s crude purchases.

Front-month EFS for July was valued at around 50 cents a barrel this week, down from the May EFS which jumped to $2.50 a barrel in mid-March, the highest level since December 2008 when Opec producers began record supply curbs.

“The arbitrage window for Western cargoes, such as Urals, to Asia remains open,” said a trader with a East Asia refiner. “It may not be that wide open for East Asia at the current prices, but India is half way, marking it more economical.”

Urals was valued at a premium of around $1 a barrel to Dubai to East Asia on a cost-insurance-freight basis, the trader added.

The prices were competitive to rival Oman crude, whose value was assessed at a 50-cent discount to Dubai on the Dubai Mercantile Exchange.

Refiners and traders were reluctant to take July Oman cargoes, saying the prices were too expensive compared with other medium and heavy crudes after values of benchmark Dubai crude was pushed up in the past two months.

More Urals cargoes are offered to Asian buyers, including Japan and Taiwan refiners, they said.

Source:http://www.thepeninsulaqatar.com/energy/3682-reliance-industries-makes-rare-purchase-of-urals-crude.html

India’s top auditor CAG has said that audit of the D-6 oil block in the Krishna-Godavari basin operated by Reliance Industries is likely to take 4-5 months more to be finished.

“We require 4-5 months to complete the audit… The process would take time, as this is the first time that we are looking at a private player’s books… It’s a very detailed process”, Comptroller and Auditor General Vinod Rai said.

The CAG is auditing Rs 45,000 crore capital spending by RIL, which is controlled by , to tap natural gas from the D-6 block in K-G basin, following a request from the petroleum ministry in 2007.

He said that RIL had submitted all related documents sought by CAG by the end of January this year.

“All the firms, including RIL, have submitted required documents that we have sought,” said Rai.

However, a Reliance Industries spokesperson refused to offer any comment on the issue.

In a hard-pitched battle last year between the Ambani siblings, younger brother Anil Ambani had alleged that Mukesh Ambani-controlled RIL had inflated capital spending to Rs 45,000 crore from the initial estimate of Rs 12,500 crore for the D-6 block.

CAG’s scope of audit is in respect of the block KG-DWN-98/3 (KG-D6) awarded to RIL for two financial years — 2006-07 and 2007-08 — with access to records of previous years linked to transactions in these years.

It is also understood that the scope of this audit will far exceed the normal course of audit by the CAG and the prime objective may be to detect fraud, if any, by the operator (RIL), allegedly in collusion with oil regulator DGH and the Ministry of Petroleum and Natural Gas.

In 2007, the Petroleum Ministry had asked the CAG to conduct an audit of seven oil and gas blocks, including RIL’s KG-D6 block. After initial reluctance, the CAG is now conducting the audit of four oil & gas blocks, namely KG-D6 of RIL, the Barmer and Ravva oilfields being operated by Cairn India and the Panna-Mukta-Ta.

Source:http://www.hindustantimes.com/RIL-s-K-G-basin-audit-to-take-4-5-months-to-complete-CAG/Article1-544355.aspx

Mukesh Ambani led Reliance Industries’ KG-D6 gas has saved 32 per cent in fertiliser subsidy as urea making plants shifted from costlier liquid fuels to cheaper gas, the Rajya Sabha was informed today.

“The reduction in naphtha usage in existing gas-based unites has reduced the subsidy cost to the government by approximately 32 per cent. The reduction in subsidy by shifting to natural gas has resulted in savings of subsidy bill,” the minister told the Upper House in a written reply.

Fertiliser subsidy is pegged at Rs 49,980.73 crore in 2010-11 fiscal from Rs 52,980.25 crore in the previous year. In 2008-09 fiscal, subsidy was over Rs 1,00,000 crore.

Under fertiliser subsidy, the government would provide Rs 15,980.73 crore for indigenous (urea) fertilisers, Rs 5,500 crore for imported (urea) fertilisers and Rs 28,500 crore for sale of decontrolled fertilisers (DAP, MOP and complexes) with concession to farmers.

Source:http://economictimes.indiatimes.com/news/economy/finance/Reliance-KG-D6-gas-has-saved-32-in-fertiliser-subsidy-Govt/articleshow/5878007.cms

Marks & Spencer Reliance India has announced the appointment of Mr Martin Jones as the new CEO.

He succeeds Mr Mark Ashman who headed the joint venture between Marks & Spencer and Reliance Retail since it was set up in 2008.

Mr Jones joined Marks & Spencer UK in 1997 and has worked in various roles within retail operations and buying and merchandising.

Source:http://www.thehindubusinessline.com/2010/05/01/stories/2010050151050700.htm

Independent oil and gas company Atlas Energy Inc said it would buy 42,344 acres in the gas-rich Marcellus shale along with Indian energy giant Reliance Industries, weeks after the two announced a joint venture.

The companies will buy the acreage in Fayette, Washington, Indiana, Westmoreland, Armstrong and Clarion Counties of Pennsylvania at an average price of $4,532 per acre.

Earlier this month, Reliance said it would pay Atlas $1.7 billion, or $14,000 an acre, to buy a 40 percent stake in Atlas’s operations in the Marcellus shale.

The booming Marcellus shale — a gas project which according to some geologists could hold enough natural gas to satisfy U.S. demand for a decade — has been attracting companies’ attention for the last few years.

Following Wednesday’s deal, the Atlas-Reliance joint venture will control about 343,000 Marcellus Shale acres, of which about 206,000 acres are net to Atlas.

Atlas said it would be able to drill over 450 horizontal wells on the latest acquired acreage, adding that it intends to develop a large percentage of the acreage in the next five years.

Source:http://in.reuters.com/article/businessNews/idINIndia-47890920100422

Mukesh Ambani led Reliance Industries made a fourth oil discovery in the Cambay Basin in Gujarat.

Two hydrocarbon-bearing zones were discovered in a well drilled in exploration block CB-ONN-2003/1, which flowed 300 barrels of oil during testing, the company said in a press statement. The block was awarded under NELP-V round of exploration bidding, the statement added.

“The discovery is significant as this play fairway is expected to open more oil pool areas, leading to better hydrocarbon potential within the block,” it said.

The well, CB10A-F1, was drilled to a total depth of 1,605 metres and flowed at a rate of 300 barrels of oil per day (bopd). The 635-sq km CB-ONN-2003/1 block is located at a distance of about 130 km from Ahmedabad, in Gujarat. The block that covers an area of 635 sq km, is divided into two parts viz., Part A & Part B. RIL, as Operator, holds 100% participating interest (PI) in the block.

“This discovery, named Dhirubhai-47, the fourth oil discovery in the block so far, has been notified to the government and Director-General, Directorate General of Hydrocarbons,” the statement said.

“The potential commercial interest of the discovery is being ascertained through more data gathering and analysis,” Reliance Industries said in a statement.

RIL is continuing further exploratory drilling efforts in the block.

Reliance Industries Ltd has zeroed in on Singapore-based infrastructure firm InfraCo to offload 45 per cent stake in its Jhajjar SEZ. Spread out over 25,000 acres, the Rs 30,000-crore project located in Haryana is majority-owned by RIL, with 10 per cent held by the Haryana State Industrial and Infrastructure Development Corporation.

If the deal goes through, RIL’s holding in the project will come down to 45 per cent. FE was the first to report RIL’s in-principle decision to offload stake to a strategic partner for capital support. This would be the first time the Mukesh Ambani-led company inducts a partner for holding a major stake in any of its ventures.

The induction of InfraCo is strategically important for RIL, as the Singapore-based company has the ability to share risks associated with the infrastructure project, as it would take years for its income streams to turn robust. InfraCo funds early-stage, high-risk costs by taking an equity stake in the project and making decisions that will lead to socially responsible and successful construction and operation. In the past, IL & FS and Mitsui have also reportedly been in the fray for a strategic stake in the venture. RIL has sought Haryana’s permission to convert part of the project into an industrial model township, as it sees potential in the project as a real estate venture rather than a complete SEZ given various tax complications.

Source:http://www.indianexpress.com/news/InfraCo-may-buy-45-per-cent-in-Reliance-s-Jhajjar-SEZ/609620

Reliance Utilities and Power, which runs captive power plants for Mukesh Ambani-led Reliance Industries, today said it plans to raise Rs 1,000 crore by way of debt.

The board of directors of Reliance Utilities and Power Pvt Ltd will meet tomorrow to “consider the issue of unsecured, redeemable non-convertible debentures” for raising up to Rs 1,000 crore, the company said in a regulatory filing.

Reliance Utilities and Power (RUPL) did not specify the need for the fund raising exercise. The company had earlier sought to raise Rs 500 crore in June, 2009, for “general corporate purposes” through issue of debt securities.

RUPL is primarily engaged in the business of setting up, operating and maintaining captive power plants at various manufacturing locations of Reliance Industries (RIL).

RUPL supplies power and steam to RIL’s facilities, such as those located at Hazira and Jamnagar. As of June, 2009, RUPL was operating and maintaining over 1,500 MW of power generation capacity.

The company has entered into a Power Purchase Agreement with RIL that is valid up to the 2015-16 fiscal. It had total secured loans worth about Rs 668 crore from banks as on March 31, 2009.

RUPL earned a net profit of Rs 243 crore in 2008, up from Rs 167 crore in the previous year.

Source:Business Standard