Seated at the apex of the Oil & Gas industry in India, Mukesh Ambani’s Reliance Industries Limited (RIL) has over the last few years placed an emphasis on fortifying its presence in overseas territories. This has included exports to the United States and, collaborating and investing in assets in Venezuela’s and Vietnam’s oil rich regions. Now, RIL has turned its sights on trading in Singapore; one of the bastions of commercial trade and foreign exchange not only in the Asia-Pacific (APAC) Region, but also the entire world. This is due to Singapore’s favorable laws and regulations that benefit trading and also due to its proximity to fast developing South-East Asian Markets such as Australia and, Australia which is attracting considerable investments from Indian businesses.In addition, Singapore supports international traders who set up physical trading and corporate functions in the city-state.
Reliance Industries Limited has started trading crude and refined products in Singapore starting this November. The choice of Singapore was a natural considering the fact that Singapore is Asia’s biggest oil-trading center. The Mumbai-based company currently trades naphtha and fuel oil with an expansion this portfolio expect by most market analysts. The Singapore Unit is operated by Reliance Global Energy Services (Singapore) Pte. Ltd. The Singapore unit has joined the trade ministry’s Global Traders Programme, which offers lower tax rates to businesses that set up trading operations in the country, he said.
When asked about the company’s plan in this region, the CEO of RILs Singapore operations, Mike Omar was quoted as saying, “Singapore will have its own trading book. We’re looking to grow the manpower size over time. The increase will be dependent on the growth of the portfolio.” To facilitate this ambitious plan, Reliance has planned to lease storage facilities in Singapore to blend gasoil, or diesel, and gasoline. This will then be supplied to Southeast Asian and Australian markets, an area of focus for nearly every business.
Expansion in New Frontiers
This is yet another step forward for RIL, which also operates the world largest refinery in Jamnagar, Gujarat. In addition, Omar has said that the company will continue to trade crude and fuels from Mumbai. One small glitch in the phenomenal growth seen by the Ambani-owned enterprise has been the fall in exports to the United States. RIL, which is the most prominent among the oil barrel exporters to the US, has seen the total barrels exported fall to just 183,000 from 518,000 in 2013 and 2.7 million in 2010. These figures, obtained from the Energy Information Administration in Washington are an indication of why the oil market in general needs to approach a holistic focus on their businesses and strive to make in-roads into emerging markets that might offer incredible gains.
For Mukesh Ambani’s Reliance, international expansion is a priority. Onwards and upwards go RILand with the APAC region and Australia poised for growth in the Oil & Gas sector, this move might well turn out to be another masterstroke by India’s wealthiest industrialist.