RIL plans projects worth $13 bn, including refinery

Reliance Industries Ltd plans to invest about $13 billion in energy projects, including a 400,000 barrels per day (bpd) crude refinery at its Jamnagar complex, documents seen by Reuters show.

The refinery would process cheap, heavy crudes that are increasingly available to Asia as the shale boom has cut US demand for the grades.

Reliance, controlled by billionaire Mukesh Ambani, operates the world's biggest refining complex in Gujarat, where its two adjacent plants can process about 1.4 million bpd of oil. The company last year sought the approval of the environment ministry to invest Rs 77,300 crore ($12.8 billion) to build a new refinery and some polymer units, and to switch the fuel for a 450 megawatt power plant from gas to coal, according to a copy of the proposal obtained by Reuters.

The federal environment ministry wrote back in May this year asking Reliance to meet certain conditions in order to secure a green light for the projects, the documents show.Reliance did not respond to an email seeking comments.