Mukesh Ambani on Friday laid out an ambitious roadmap to reinvent Reliance Industries' traditional oil-to-chemicals (O2C) business, saying the conglomerate plans to move beyond conventional refining and convert crude oil into high-value products such as carbon fibre, specialty materials and green chemicals to reduce its exposure to geopolitical and commodity price shocks.
Speaking at Reliance's 49th annual general meeting, Ambani described the O2C business as the group's long-standing growth engine but said its next phase would look very different.
"Our oil-to-chemicals business, the mainstay of Reliance so far, will increase earnings as soon as the geopolitical situation improves. More importantly, we are reinventing this business to create new revenue streams that are less vulnerable to external volatility," he said.
Also Read | From Hormuz shock to energy security: How Reliance kept India's fuel lifeline intact
He added that the company intends to utilise every barrel of crude it processes to manufacture advanced materials and sustainable products with higher margins.
"We will convert all the crude oil we process into new materials, carbon fibre, specialty materials, green chemicals and much more," he said, adding that the strategy would drive margin expansion and lay the foundation for the group's future O2C and new materials business.
The transformation is significant because Reliance already operates the world's largest and among the most sophisticated refining complexes at Jamnagar in Gujarat, giving it a unique advantage in producing petrol, diesel, jet fuel and a wide range of petroleum products.
Currently, nearly half of Jamnagar's output, around 33 million tonnes annually, caters to India's domestic fuel demand, while the remaining production is processed through its Special Economic Zone refinery that primarily serves export markets and higher-value international customers.
The comments come against the backdrop of heightened volatility in global energy markets triggered by the West Asia conflict.
Earlier in the AGM, Executive Director Anant Ambani said Reliance had managed to navigate the disruption in the Strait of Hormuz by diversifying crude sourcing and maintaining near-full refinery throughput despite soaring freight rates and insurance costs.
He also said Reliance quadrupled LPG supplies and redirected domestic natural gas to priority sectors such as city gas distribution, fertilisers and power generation when LNG imports were disrupted.
Anant Ambani further warned that India remains dependent on external sources for more than 70% of its energy requirements, making the country vulnerable to geopolitical instability.
However, during this year's AGM, the headline announcement came when Mukesh Ambani revealed that the board of Jio Platforms had approved its draft red herring prospectus (DRHP), with the telecom and digital services company set to file the papers with market regulator SEBI later in the day, taking a significant step towards its much-awaited stock market debut.
