Reliance Industries, India's most valuable listed company, is scouting for oil investments in the Americas as it looks to increase the stake of crude production it owns to feed its refinery, the world's largest, a senior executive said.
The company, controlled by Mukesh Ambani, India's richest man, is also looking to invest more in the United States shale gas sector, Executive Director PMS Prasad told Reuters.
"We are looking at opportunities to invest. Our shale gas business in the US needs capital," he said in an interview.
Reliance has outlined plans to spend $4 billion to $4.5 billion by 2014 on three US shale gas joint ventures it entered into last year.
Reliance's share price has fallen nearly 29 percent this year, underperforming the broader index, on investor worries about declining output at its key offshore India gas field.
This year, Reliance brought in the expertise of BP to help it on the offshore D6 block, where output is lagging targets, and the British company has said production from the field off India's east coast could rise from 2014.
BP, which paid $7.2 billion to Reliance for a 30 percent stake in more than 20 oil and gas blocks, has said it hoped to get approvals to begin work this year.
Those approvals from the Indian government are still pending. "Along with BP and support from the government, we want to increase production at the earliest (opportunity)," Prasad said.
Reliance, a conglomerate that is also involved in retail and financial services, must buy nearly all the crude that it uses to feed its giant Jamnagar refining complex in western India, and would like to lift its share of "equity oil" or oil production that it owns from almost zero at present.
"If we reach 25-30 percent of the heavy oil we need, that would be good," Prasad said. About two-thirds of Reliance's demand is for heavy crude, and the firm is especially focused on acquiring heavy oil sources in politically stable countries, said Prasad, who did not identify specific targets.
"We're generally looking at oil, but heavy is particularly interesting to us because of the synergies," Prasad said.