India's Reliance Industries has launched a wholly owned unit in the UAE to trade crude oil, petroleum, petrochemical products and agricultural commodities.
According to Arab Net, the parent company stated that the new unit, Reliance International Limited, had not yet started operations, adding that it had invested $1 million in it.
In its brief statement, Reliance, which operates the world's largest refining complex in Jamnagar in western India, did not mention the reason for the decision to establish the new unit and the reasons for choosing the UAE as its headquarters. This was in line with her focus more on the outside, she said Saturday.
The company has previously bought stakes in a number of overseas exploration and downstream assets. In June, it entered into an agreement with the Abu Dhabi National Oil Company (ADNOC) to build a multi-billion dollar chemical project in the city of Ruwais, to be the company's first foreign investment of its kind.
Reliance announced in June that it had appointed Saudi Aramco CEO Yasser Al-Rumayyan as a director on its board, saying it hoped this was the beginning of Reliance's transformation into International company.
The company hopes to complete formal procedures this year for the deal to sell 20% of its activities to Aramco.
