Company Background - Reliance Industries

In the year 1966 the RIL was founded by Shri Dhirubhai H.Ambani, it was started as a small textile manufacturer unit. In May 8th, 1973 RIL was incorporated and conformed their name as RIL in the year 1985. Over the years, the company has transformed their business from manufacturing of textiles products into a petrochemical major. RIL is the largest private-sector enterprise in India in terms of revenues, profits, net worth, assets and market capitalization. It's operations capture value addition at every stage, from the production of crude oil and gas to polyester, polymer and chemical products, and finally to the production of textiles. The company operates mainly in India but has business activities and customers in more than 100 countries around the world. It has production facilities at three major locations in India and a further four locations in Europe. It also has exploration and production interests in India, Yemen and Oman.

The company has set up a texturising / twisting facilities in 1979, RIL has also set up plants for Polyester Staple Fiber (PSF) in 1986 and for Linear Alkyl Benzene (LAB) & Purified Terephthalic Acid (PTA) in 1988. RIL has setup a petrochemical facility to produce HDPE and PVC at Hazira, Gujarat in technical collaboration with DuPont and BF Goodich respectively. The Hazira petrochemical plant was commissioned in 1991-92.

In the year 1995-96, the company entered the telecom industry through a joint venture with NYNEX, USA and promoted Reliance Telecom Private Limited in India. Reliance became the first corporate in Asia to issue bonds in the U.S at the year of 1996-97. The company commissioned an 80,000 tonne bottle grade PET chip plant at Hazira manufacturing complex. Reliance's PET chips has been accepted internationally due to their high quality during the year 1997-98 and in the same year Reliance Industries Planned to invest around Rs. 5000 crores (US $ 1,250 million) in building two world-scale plants at the site of the Jamnagar refinery in Gujarat. In 1998-99, RIL introduced packaged LPG in 15 kg cylinders under the brand name Reliance Gas. In 1999-2000, RIL commissioned the world's largest 1.4 million tonnes per annum Paraxylene (PX) plant at its new integrated petrochemicals complex at Jamnagar which was planned at 1997-98. Reliance Petroleum Limited (RPL) was amalgamated with Reliance Industries Ltd in the year 2002-03.

The merger places Reliance in the reckoning for a place in the Fortune Global 500 list of the world's largest corporations. During the year the company has also amalgamated Indian Petrochemicals Corporations Limited (IPCL), which leads to compete from a stronger base in the global market. Reliance discovered natural gas in the very first exploration well it drilled in the deep-water exploration block KG-D6 in the Krishna-Godavari basin off Andhra Pradesh. In 2004-05, RIL acquired the polyester major, Trevira GmbH, headquartered in Frankfurt, Germany which has the capacity of 130,000 tonnes per annum of polyester staple fibers, polyester filament yarns and polyester chips.

As of 2007 across the globe, RIL is largest producer of polyester fiber and yarn, 4th largest producer of Paraxylene (PX) and Purified Terephthalic Acid (PTA), 6th largest producer of Mono Ethylene Glycol (MEG) and 7th largest producer of Polypropylene (PP). Gujarat State Petronet Ltd (GSPL) and Reliance Industries Ltd (RIL) have signed a gas transportation agreement to transport 11 million standard cubic meters per day (MSCMD) of natural gas from Bhadbhut in Bharuch to RIL's refinery and petrochemical complex in Jamnagar. Similarly, Gujarat State Petroleum Corporation Ltd (GSPC) has signed a gas transportation agreement with Reliance Gas Transmission and Infrastructure Ltd (RGTIL) for transportation of 3.5 MSCMD of natural gas from its largest K-G basin discovery at Kakinada to Gujarat.

The Maharashtra state government has given the final nod to Reliance Industries Limited (RIL) to set up two captive power plants in Maharashtra - each of 1100 MW capacity - to meet the requirement of special economic zones, malls and other commercial setups and company assured the state of gas supply to Mahgenco's Uran unit. Reliance Industries Ltd plans to invest between Rs 25,000 crore to Rs 30,000 crore in a pipeline grid that covers main gas transport trunk lines supplemented by spur lines crisscrossing four major States initially, followed by a pan-India network and it stretching about 10,000 km across the country. Reliance Industries is entering the supply-deficient hospitality business and is in talks with big international names such as Walt Disney, Ritz Carlton and Four Seasons for managing some of their hotels, it is also looking to set up hotels with themes, such as those run by Disney in the US. Having entered consumer retail and special economic zones in the last two years, Reliance considers hospitality a natural complement to its existing businesses.

The company has signed a letter of intent with NOVA Chemicals on May 2008, to form 51:49 a joint venture in the area of building and construction. This proposed new joint venture between RIL and NOVA Chemicals would be a technological partnership for deploying green building and construction technologies to design, engineer, fabricate and build a range of high-efficiency structures for the Indian sub-continent. Reliance Industries Ltd plans to investment Rs 17,000 crore in oil and gas exploration over the next few years; The Company has already invested Rs 9,000 crore in exploration so far. RIL is also considering surrendering seven exploration blocks awarded to it by the Government.