Joint Ventures

INDIA

Reliance, Bechtel form Joint Venture

Reliance Industries (RIL) plans to venture into high-end engineering and infrastructure sectors. RIL is learnt to have formed a 50:50 joint venture with the US-based engineering construction and project management giant Bechtel International Inc to execute engineering and construction projects in the domestic and international markets.

According to RIL sources, the RIL-Bechtel joint venture will bid for large-scale construction and engineering projects in oil and gas, pipeline, chemical, power and refinery sectors.

The RIL-Bechtel venture is currently handling engineering and civil contract work for the mega refinery being built by Reliance at Jamnagar, in Gujarat and will soon take up a number of additional projects, RIL sources said.

Foster Wheeler, Exxon Mobil and UOP are the technical collaborators for RIL's Jamnagar export oriented refinery unit. Incidentally, the American engineering giant was also instrumental in setting up the first refinery project for RIL at Jamnagar.