RIL: Aramco deal more to secure crude supply than deleveraging

Mumbai: The 20-percent stake sale in Reliance Industry’s oil-to-chemicals business to Saudi Aramco is a strategic deal driven partly to secure long-term crude supply, senior company officials explained Monday.

The deal, which is expected to be completed during this fiscal, is not driven by the company’s move to deleverage debt of over Rs 1.54 trillion, they clarified even as chairman Mukesh Ambani told the shareholders that RIL will be debt-free over the next 18 months.

Earlier in the day, Ambani told the AGM that the Saudi oil giant Aramco will pick up 20 percent in the oil-to- chemicals (O2C) business for over USD 15 billion, valuing RIL at USD 75 billion, making this one of the largest foreign investments into the country to date.