New Delhi: Global Supermajor BP PLC will continue to operate in India Mukesh AmbaniDespite its exclusivity it is due to an unwritten strategic partnership reliance Industries Limited is defunct.
BP’s outgoing India chief Shashi Mukundan said the energy giant had spent $7.2 billion to acquire a 30 percent interest in 23. oil and gas Reliance’s block in 2011. eastern offshore KG-D6 The block was a key element of the agreement, which included a 10-year exclusivity period with Reliance during which BP would undertake energy projects or investments in India.
So far, the oil and gas firm has invested more than $12 billion across the energy value chain, including three new deepwater natural gas projects in KG-D6, which accounts for a third of India’s gas production.
“We started working with Reliance way back in 2005 when (then BP CEO) Lord John Browne visited India,” Mukundan said.
It eventually fell through in a 2011 deal. “Even after 13 years of doing the upstream deal, we have not even once looked back at the contract,” he said, adding that the partnership with Reliance is not based on contract but on “trust and relationship”. Is.
Mukundan said that whenever both the partners have a problem, they simply sit face to face, “All I have to do is make a call or send (a) WhatsApp (message) and say I want to meet you. And you know, between him (Reliance Industries Limited Chairman and Managing Director Mukesh Ambani) and Mr (PMS) Prasad (Reliance Executive Director), we sort out everything.”
Mukundan said the original deal for a stake in upstream oil and gas exploration and production assets has evolved into retail partnerships and EVs and is continuing to grow.
“In the (2011) contract, the exclusivity was for 10 years. That expired. But there is an unwritten… I wouldn’t call it an agreement, but it is an unwritten feeling that, basically, we are their strategic partner, And they’re our strategic partners and I think both companies are really on board with that.” “Whenever we’re approached, we say no. Whenever they’re approached, they say no.”
He said BP-Reliance are “more exclusive from the relationship point of view” and for Ambani, BP is his strategic partner.
Answering why BP chose Reliance instead of any other Indian company like state-owned Oil and Natural Gas Corporation (ONGC), Mukundan said that Reliance had a huge exploration area spread over 270,000 square kilometers which Gave it materiality.
BP-Reliance teamed up with ONGC to bid for the Gujarat offshore block in the recently concluded bidding round for the oil and gas exploration sector.
Mukundan said BP’s approach all these years has been to “work with what India wants”.
“And for years, we have always said that the right way to do things is to work as partners and share infrastructure,” he said, giving the example of the US, where BP Chevron , is competitive with Shell and other global giants, but work together in the Gulf of Mexico.
BP supports the government in exploring in the country to produce more oil and gas and reduce dependence on imports. “And with that (objective) in mind we held talks with ONGC, Reliance and we agreed that it would be a powerful combination to bring all three of us together – a national oil company, the largest private company And the most successful international company in India, all working together,” he said.
Talking about BP’s future plans, Mukundan said the investment strategy rests on four pillars: flexible hydrocarbons, lubricants, mobility and renewable energy.
Even though BP has been present in the renewable energy sector for a long time, it believes that India is going through an energy growth phase where it will need fossil fuels to meet the growing energy needs.
He said his venture’s KG-D6 block produces one-third of India’s natural gas. This block also produces oil. “And we plan to do more in that block. And we’ve got two other blocks next to it that we’ll continue to explore.
And hopefully the same infrastructure that we have built will be used.” BP-Reliance will invest a few billion dollars in the two blocks.
The second pillar is customers and products where BP has Castrol, a lubricant brand present in India for 125 years. “Castrol has been primarily a lubricants business, but now they are moving towards EV fluids.
He said that both the companies are considering compressed biogas and CNG after EV charging. He said the joint venture has just inaugurated the 5,000th charging point.
The enterprise has 5,000 of all the charging stations which are fast charging charge points through which it can charge some of the top cars in minutes.
BP has also developed its own solutions and supported startups in the third pillar or low carbon sector.
The last pillar is people. “When I first started in India, I used to call it 3M – molecules, markets and minds.”
