Reliance to invest $24 billion over 10 years in Gulf projects

12 December 2007

Mumbai: Reliance Industries, India's largest company by market value, will invest about $24 billion in petrochemical projects in West Asian Gulf countries in the next 10 years, Mukesh D Ambani, company's chairman and managing director, has said.

Ambani said Reliance is changing several of its strategies. "The first is from an organic growth model to a mix of organic and aggressive acquisitions-led mode of growth," he told a petrochemical conference in Dubai.

Reliance, he said, will also reposition its global operation to Dubai by strengthening its office there. "Dubai will be the gateway for our future in this part of the world and beyond," he told Gulf News in an interview.

Reliance, a refiner and petrochemical maker, wants to tap growing demand for chemicals in Asia, especially China and India, Ambani said.

Chemical projects are getting larger as the cost of feedstock – mainly oil –  rises, forcing chemical firms to increase scale of operation to between $4 billion and $5 billion and also integrate with oil refineries, he said.

"Energy and feedstock costs for our industry will continue to move in an upwards direction," Ambani said.