Reliance Industries to become net zero by 2035: Mukesh Ambani

Reliance Industries plans to become net zero by 2035 through the use of renewable and bioenergy, chairman Mukesh Ambani informed shareholders at the company's 46^th annual general meeting.

"We are well on our way to building the New Energy ecosystem of manufacturing solar, wind, batteries, hydrogen, and bio-energy platforms. This will enable us to speed up the development of our Renewable generation assets to deliver round-the-clock electricity for our captive requirements as well as to meet the growing needs of Indian consumers. As the cost of Renewables will be significantly lower compared to fossil fuel-based energy, this will result in reduced energy costs and improved profitability for the O2C business," says Ambani.

Elaborating on the company's carbon fibre facility in Gujarat, Ambani says that the facility will include Fibre and Carbon Fibre fibre-reinforced plastics. "Our target is to be among the top three players globally in the Carbon Fibre and Carbon Fibre Reinforced Plastic composites," says Ambani.

According to Ambani, the company is well on its way to enhancing gas production to 30 MMSCMD (million metric standard cubic meters per day), which will be 30% of India’s gas production and 15% of the current gas demand. Ambani says that gas production has saved up to $7 billion per annum in imports. "We are pursuing further enhancement with our exploration efforts in KG-UDW1 and KG-UDW2 blocks in the Krishna-Godavari Basin with an aim to sustain gas production over the next 15-20 years," says Ambani.

According to Ambani, through its partnership with UK-based bp, the company has revived gas production in the KG-D6 Block from near zero in the past few years to about 20 MMSCMD in FY23. "This is led by successful commissioning and safe delivery of gas from R-Cluster and Satellite-Cluster projects in FY21 and FY22 respectively," says Ambani.

"Continuing with our effort, this year, we commissioned one of the most complex and cost-efficient deep-water projects of this scale – the MJ Field, in KG-D6 Block. This includes a state-of-the-art FPSO which is among the largest and the most complex in the world with a gas production capacity of 14 MMSCMD," he adds.

According to Ambani, the company's EBITDA for the Oil-to-Chemical business improved by 17.7% to a record high of ₹62,075 crore. “We operated with the lowest level of feedstock inventory in our history to benefit from opportunities in a turbulent global oil market. Fully utilising the flexibility and integration of our assets, we added 13 new grades of crude oil and feedstocks. We ensured the high availability of the Gasification unit to minimise the purchase of high-cost LNG to lower our energy costs. Our partnership with bp in fuel retailing and mobility solutions continued to make steady progress," says Ambani.