Reliance lines up $10-bn investments in Egypt

MUMBAI: Reliance Industries, India’s largest private sector company, will invest about $10 billion in Egypt to produce petrochemicals and oil products for the growing markets of Europe and the US.

This will be the largest overseas investment so far by the Mukesh Ambani-controlled company. The Egyptian government announced Reliance Industries’ investment plans on Thursday.

The state news agency MENA said Egyptian PM Ahmed Nazif announced the decision by the Indian company after meeting Reliance executives in the port city of Alexandria.

Mr Nazif’s spokesman Magdy Rady said the investments by Reliance will include $1 billion to build an oil refinery and $7 billion in petrochemicals, MENA added. It gave no further details of the projects.

A spokesman for Reliance Industries in Mumbai declined to comment.

Reliance Industries proposes to take advantage of the heavy crude available in North Africa to process a range of oil products such as gasoline.

Heavy crude is usually difficult to process and requires a highly complex refinery. But it is cheaper than normal or sweet crude by about $5-5.5 per barrel. Reliance Industries uses a lot of heavy crude in its Jamnagar refinery.

The Egyptian government estimates Indian investments in Egypt are worth $320 million. Reliance Petroleum, a subsidiary of Reliance group, has been importing and marketing Egyptian crude oil since 2001.