Chevron CEO meets Mukesh in Mumbai

MUMBAI: David J O’ Reilly, chief executive officer of Chevron, met Mukesh Ambani, chairman and managing director of Reliance Industries (RIL), at the latter’s residence — Sea Wind — over dinner on Wednesday evening. RIL is India’s most valued company by market capitalisation, while Chevron is US’s number two company by the same yardstick.

Both of them will fly to Jamnagar on Thursday to inspect the construction of Reliance Petroleum (RPL)’s refinery there. Mr O’ Reilly is in India on a four-day visit starting from Tuesday along with Jeet Singh Bindra, president of Chevron’s global refining business. Mr Bindra is Chevron’s nominee on the RPL’s board, where it has 5% stake with option to increase it up to 29%.

It is believed that Chevron is likely to pick up stake in RIL’s KG basin assets and also likely to invest in a gas marketing project by Reliance.

On Tuesday, Mr O’ Reilly had dinner with petroleum minister Murli Deora at his residence in New Delhi. When asked about discussions with Mr O’ Reilly, petroleum minister Murli Deora told ET, “We discussed about oil and gas investments opportunities in India. I invited him to invest in the Indian refining sector.”

Mr O’ Reilly told reporters, “We are here for a few days... To visit the refinery under construction where we are a partner at Jamnagar. That is the primary purpose of the visit. We want to see the construction ourselves.”

Asked about Chevron increasing its stake in the refinery from 5% to 29% as was agreed in April 2006, he said, “We have an agreement with them. If everything does well, we will see further together. I can’t speculate on the timing.”