RIL gets $400 mn finance from US Ex-Im bank

New Delhi, Aug 29: Mukesh Ambani-led Reliance Industries Ltd (RIL) has received a 400 million dollars long-term loan guarantee from the Export-Import Bank of the United States for its onshore and offshore oil and gas exploration and production activities in the Krishna Godavari Basin in the Bay of Bengal.

RIL, which operates the largest refinery in the country with integrated petrochemical complexes in Maharashtra and Gujarat, will use the Ex-Im Bank-guaranteed financing for purchasing US engineering services, oil field equipment, offshore platform support, and drill and well services. Also, it will use a small portion of the financing to support ongoing work at the Jamnagar refinery, which received the Bank's support last year.

The company has recently expanded into offshore oil and gas exploration and production.

The primary US exporters for the transaction include Bechtel Corporation, J Ray McDermott Inc and Canyon Offshore Inc, among others.

''India is a market with enormous prospects, and Ex-Im Bank is pleased to support this large energy-development transaction on behalf of American exporters. Our support helped to make their exports competitive in the face of significant international competition backed by foreign export-credit agencies,'' Ex-Im Bank Chairman and President James H Lambright said in a statement.

Ex-Im Bank, the official export-credit agency of the US, has identified India as a key market for its export financing.

In April this year, the Bank established the Indian Infrastructure Facility to support US exports to Indian projects in sectors such as power and renewable-energy generation, oil and gas development, airport and seaport development, railway and urban transit and healthcare.

The facility now includes nine Indian financial institutions and has a financing capacity of 2.45 billion dollars.

UNI