Mukesh Ambani to meet Chevron Chief on Friday for joint ventures

New Delhi, Feb 20 (UNI) Reliance Industries Ltd (RIL) Chairman Mukesh Ambani will meet chief of US oil major Chevron David O'Reilly Friday and chalk plans to jointly work in energy exploration from deep seas and producing bio-fuels for running automobiles.

The US-based company is also expected to raise its stake to 29 per cent in Reliance Petroleum Ltd, a Reliance Industries subsidiary that is setting up a 5,80,000 barrels a day export refinery at Jamnagar adjacent to the parent company's existing unit.

Last year, Chevron had picked up five per cent stake in Reliance Petroleum for 300 million dollars. A partnership in Reliance's gas find in the Krishna-Godavari basin off the Andhra coast is also on the anvil.

Reliance is scheduled to pump gas from the basin and is expected to supply 80 million cubic metres a day of gas at its peak production capacity, which will be more than half of the domestic production.

For gas to be pumped out from over 2,000 metres below the seabed, Chevron's knowhow in this field would come in handy.

Possible joint venture in producing biofuels, particularly ethanol will also be explored with Chevron, the biggest bio-fuel producer among the world's oil majors.

Reliance is also looking for acquiring 10,000 acres of sugar cane fields in Brazil.

Chevron has committed to spend 25 million dollars in research in biofuels over the next five years.

UNI