India's private-sector conglomerate Reliance Industries (RIL) has established a new $1mn oil and petrochemicals trading unit in the UAE, as it pushes ahead with a petrochemicals joint venture with Abu Dhabi's state-owned Adnoc. The new subsidiary Reliance International will be located at the Abu Dhabi Global Market free zone in the UAE capital, Reliance said on 2 October. And although business operations are yet to begin, the unit will carry out "activities relating to, amongst others, trading of crude oil, petroleum products, petrochemicals and agricultural commodities," it said.
Reliance signed an agreement in June with Adnoc to build a new 940,000 t/yr chlor-alkali, 1.1mn t/yr ethylene dichloride (EDC) and 360,000 t/yr polyvinyl chloride (PVC) facility in the Ta'ziz chemicals zone in Ruwais. The project is undergoing the first stages of development. Tenders for the initial design of the seven Ta'ziz chemicals derivatives projects have been awarded and final investment decisions for the projects and awards of related contracts are targeted for 2022.