Reliance AGM 2025: Past year brought extraordinary 'complexity' in global energy markets, admits Reliance

The past year brought extraordinary complexity in global energy markets, said Anant Ambani, Executive Director at RIL, at the 48th Annual General Meeting (AGM) on Friday. "Supply chain disruptions, trade shifts, and petrochemical overcapacity posed major challenges. In this dynamic environment, Reliance delivered industry-leading performance."

Anant also said, “Our capital allocation is disciplined, with growth aimed at superior returns. We are investing ₹75,000 crore in projects across Nagothane, Dahej and Palghar, which are strategically positioned to meet India’s rising demand.”

“Our Hazira carbon fibre facility will be among the world’s three largest, serving aerospace, defence and advanced materials, while at Jamnagar we are on course to realising the autonomous refinery.”


He stated, the company's Exploration & Production business is a "cornerstone" of India’s energy security. It contributes nearly 30% of the nation’s natural gas output.

Mukesh Ambani also said that despite geopolitical uncertainty, India is on the rise, and its rise is unstoppable. "In today's interdependent world, the prosperity of each country is inseparably linked to the prosperity of all."

O2C business is achieving substantial growth and delivering stable returns as geopolitical tensions subside, he said.

The Reliance chairman further said, paradoxically, while uncertainty surrounds us, humanity also stands at the threshold of a golden age in the 21st century – an age defined no longer by scarcity, but by super-abundance and super-affordability for all eight billion people on this planet.

In FY25, E&P delivered a record EBITDA of ₹21,188 crore ($2.5 billion). This was driven by higher output from both KG-D6 and CBM.

The get-together took place just two days after the US doubled tariffs on India as punishment for its imports of discounted Russian oil, and Mukesh Ambani has drawn particular attention for purchases likely to have saved the company hundreds of millions this year.

Reliance in a bind over Russian oil purchases

Reliance has been left in a bind. Russian oil is not sanctioned, and stopping purchases in response to US pressure means rupturing an existing long-term deal with Rosneft Oil Co PJSC, giving up a strategic advantage for what is already a profitable, highly sophisticated refining business. And of course, a retreat would run counter to Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s defiant position.

Not shifting, however, leaves a $214 billion empire vulnerable to continued tariffs and even US sanctions and other hurdles. Nayara Energy, which runs a refinery down the road from Reliance’s sprawling Jamnagar complex on India’s western coast, was blacklisted by the European Union in July and has since faced financial and logistical challenges.

Senior US officials have dialed up criticism over recent days, and on Wednesday, White House trade adviser Peter Navarro again accused India of funding Russia’s “war machine.” They have not named Ambani, though they have accused “some of India’s richest families” of war profiteering — at a time when a company owned by India’s wealthiest man is the country’s single largest buyer of Russian crude.

Since the Trump administration’s campaign began, India as a whole has eased, but not ceased, purchases of Russian crude.

“Will commitments on reduction of Russian oil purchases and shifting to US sources be enough for the Trump administration, or does it expect the Indian government to crack down on its claims of profiteering?” asked Mark Linscott, senior advisor with The Asia Group. “It’s hard to know how the government can maneuver this, given how difficult it is to read the Trump administration’s objectives.”

Reliance has spent much of the past decade shifting away from its core oil and gas business and toward a greener, consumer-facing future. Its Reliance Jio Infocomm Ltd. telecom business revolutionized India’s smartphone ownership. The company has become the country’s largest retailer, with more than 19,000 stores, and is building the country’s most ambitious manufacturing complex for making energy transition hardware, from solar modules to batteries and electrolyzers.

Even so, the oil, gas and chemicals business funded much of that change and still accounts for well over half of annual revenue and two-fifths of profit, as measured by earnings before interest, tax, depreciation and amortization. The core refining contribution was surpassed only recently, by the digital services arm.

A 10-year oil-purchase deal with Rosneft that came into effect earlier this year has helped. Credit ratings agency ICRA estimates India saved $3.8 billion in the fiscal year 2025 from Russian oil deals. Bloomberg calculations, based on average import prices and Reliance’s imports in the first six months of the year, suggest savings in the region of $571 million for that period — before considering changes to freight and insurance costs.

Reliance has in the past shown flexibility to seize commercial advantages — in large part thanks to Jamnagar, the world’s largest refining complex and one of the most advanced, with the capability to process the dirtiest of the crudes. In 2012, the company signed a 15-year deal to buy up to 400,000 barrels a day of Venezuelan crude, known to be extra-heavy and waxy. Sanctions put paid to the trade — until it won a waiver from the Biden administration. That stopped in May.

Reliance is focused on competitively priced crude and has also been exploring new partnerships in West Africa, the Middle East and the US, the person familiar with proceedings said. Earlier this week, the company purchased 2 million barrels of US crude for loading in October — a move that could be read as a modest olive branch.

“Mukesh Ambani is known to act and not react,” said Deven Choksey, managing director at wealth management firm DRChoksey FinServ Pvt., which holds positions in Reliance in its actively managed portfolios. The annual meeting, he added, would focus on Jio, renewables and additional outside investment.