Reliance fast tracks refinery

Reliance Industries Ltd., India’s largest publicly traded company, aims to complete construction of the world’s largest oil refinery six months ahead of schedule to profit from record fuel prices. “We want to hit the market as soon as possible,” said P.M.S. Prasad, president of Reliance’s petroleum business. He predicts that a global shortage of oil-processing capacity will last until about 2011. Reliance had planned to almost double output from its facility in Jamnagar, Gujarat state, by December 2008. Reliance’s unit, Reliance Petroleum Ltd., is spending US$6.1 billion to build a 580,000 barrel-per-day (BPD) refinery next to its parent’s existing 660,000 BPD plant in Jamnagar in western India, making it the world’s largest crude oil processing facility on one site. (August 18, 2006)