Reliance Industries and Chevron Corporation has announced the signing of an agreement for the purchase of 5% equity in Reliance Petroleum by Chevron India Holdings, Singapore, a wholly owned subsidiary of Chevron Corporation for USD 300 million.  This purchase is subject to approval from the regulatory authorities, as per the company announcements.

The agreement provides Chevron with the right to acquire an additional 24% of the equity stake in RPL on conclusion of the collaboration agreements between Chevron and Reliance. If Chevron acquires additional equity, this will rank as one of the largest investments from any multinational company in a single project in India.  This will also be one of the largest foreign direct investment in India.
 
The decision of Chevron to acquire an equity stake in an upcoming refinery project is a reaffirmation of Reliance’s strengths in project execution and commissioning coupled with Reliance’s talented human resource base.  This also heralds India’s entry into the league of big global players in the refinery sector.
 
In addition to this agreement, Reliance also signed two MoUs with Chevron. The first MOU sets out the principles of partnership by which Reliance and Chevron plan to optimise the crude supply and product offtake and marketing of the RPL refinery.  Under this MOU, Reliance and Chevron will jointly evaluate application of mutually selected refinery technology. The MOU also envisages that the parties would cooperate towards setting up a technology development centre in India. 

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