<p>Mukesh Ambani led Reliance Industries Limited (RIL), India’s largest private sector conglomerate, may soon become the largest profit making enterprise in the coming days, surpassing the reigning title holder Oil and Natural Gas Corporation (ONGC).</p>
<p>RIL has reported net profit of Rs. 20,286 crore in 2010-11 as compared to Rs. 16,133 crore incurred by ONGC in the first three quarters of 2010-11. Current Index heavyweight, RIL, is the most valued company in terms of market capitalization, with a market cap of Rs. 3 lakh crore with a free float of 1,70,934 crore share. While Reliance has been trading between the bands of Rs. 900 to Rs. 1050, ONGC has slipped from its trade band. It is expected that ONGC will not have an EPS surpassing the bar of Rs 22 for financial year 2011. This allows Reliance Industries to take the lead and stay in the lead.</p>
<p>Reliance Industries Limited has been consistently working towards augmenting the production from its oil and gas field with technical assistance from BP. RIL also holds interest in unconventional shale gas assets in the US having acquired stakes in Atlas Energy, Pioneer Natural Resources and Carrizo Oil and Gas Inc. While trade analysts believe that shale gas can help secure fuel reserves for RIL, it will also circumvent against any drop in the conventional fuel production in the long term. As a long term bet, RIL is perceived as one of the better option as compared to its other oil counterparts.</p>
<p>Chairman and Managing Director of ONGC, A K Hazarika, reported that because of an increase of Rs 3,832 crore in the company’s oil subsidy, the burden thus encountered is likely to affect the overall performance, knocking net profit in the fourth quarter by Rs 2,000 crore. Following reports of hike introduced by government in regards to contribution of upstream oil companies towards fuel subsidies for revenue losses suffered by oil retailers, the shares of many upstream oil companies indicated a decline while that of RIL have shown stability.</p>