Mukesh Ambani: India's Value Creator by Ramesh Lotus

Reliance Industries Ltd of Mukesh Ambani Group with its partner Niko Resources Ltd invested over Rs. 42,000 crore in exploration and development of oil and gas in the deep water basin in Krishna Godavari D6 block. The first ever oil from deep waters in the country came on stream in September 2008 and gas production began in the first quarter this year. The significance of this project is that KG D6 is not only India's first deep water development but represents a high technology mega investment project. Hence it was being watched with keen interest and great expectation not only in India but across the world. Now with its success India enters the select league of deep water developers, a feat that has so far been achieved amongst the developing nations onto by Petronras of Brazil. This mammoth venture first liberates India from perpetual technology dependence upon international oil cartels in the field of development of oil and gas resources and secondly gives a major boost to power and fertilizer sectors, since about 70° o of the gas produced is expected to be earmarked for them. In terms of figures, on full capacity, power generation is expected to surge by 8000 mw and urea output by 10 million tonne per annum! Moreover supply of gas will benefit petrochemical units and refinery and steel sectors, and natural gas being eco-friendly will be beneficial for fuel purposes also. And the import and subsidy bill of fertilizers and LNG will slash, thus saving foreign exchange. In short, Natural Gas will be a boon for our energy security, installation of power stations, public transport (LNG), households (cooking and perhaps heating e.g. gyzers) To sum up in his own words:

"The last growth cycle was really the biggest assets and value creation cycle in our history. It was also the most challenging. The results are we have an SEZ refinery, which demonstrates to the world that India, in spite of having no oil, can import oil, use at its talent and competitiveness in complex technologies to create assets and then export products. This strengthens in India in export terms and it gives us confidence that we can be on par with high-technology companies in the energy sector and even exceed them."

"The other piece is deepwater gas production and we have again set new benchmarks. Where the world takes about 10 years to go from concept to production, we have done it in a much shorter time. The project has created huge value for the economy. Natural gas is a major feedstock to the fertilizer industry and it reduces subsidies and so creates value for the government. Obviously, it also creates value for our farmers in terms of making sure that we are able to give them urea based on indigenous feed-stock and it (helps) the power situation, which overall strengthens energy security.

However when such mighty effort is going on in the interests of our country, certain elements are trying to derail or delay the project. This is inspite of the fact that there is already in place a regulatory framework such as New Exploration Licensing Policy (NELP), Production Sharing Contract (PSC), Integrated Energy Policy (IEP), and finally Empowered Group of Ministers (EGOM). The last one, namely, EGOM had, considering all aspects, fixed $4.2 mmBtu (million British Thermal Unit) plus taxes and transport charges, as the price. Inspite of explicit marketing freedom promised under NELP, the EGOM first reduced the price proposed by RIL and then formulated a "Gas Utilization Policy", under which gas would be first made available at a uniform price of $4.2/mmBtu.

Despite all hurdles and impediments just at the beginning of April this year gas from KG D6 started flowing into distribution network. At present prices, the gas will save the country nearly $9 billion or 10% in annual bill when production reaches its peak in a year by which time domestic gas output will double. It is estimated that gas sales will generate $ 42 billion in revenue over the 11-year life of the field and the estimated share of government is likely to be a minimum of $14 billion. It has rightly been said:

"Reliance Group has created history and has once again demonstrated its ability to implement complex projects at par with the best performance benchmarks in the world. The clean energy from the Dhirubhai 1 and 3 discoveries of the KG-D6 block will be a boost for energy security and growth of India." Government has already identified the consumers whom the gas will be allocated. Even ADAG's power plant at Samalkot in Andhra Pradesh will be one of the recipients of KG-D6 gas at government approved rates. In case any of these consumers is unable to use the full quota, the EGOM has already decided to allocate unutilized KG-D6 gas to such sectors as gas-based steel plants. Thereafter allocations will be made to existing gas-fired power plants and then also to other power plants including captive power plants depending upon the availability of unutilized gas. In the allocation, priority has been given to urea-making plants, gas-based power plants, LPG extraction units, city gas projects for retailing CNG to automobiles and piped cooking gas to households. This indicates the contours of distribution and consumer coverage of gas from KG-D6. It needs to be emphasized here that in tins scheme. Reliance which has given the nation its biggest gas discovery has not been given a single cubic metre from its own gas. This is indeed a case of sacrifice and self-denial.

Another achievement of Mukesh Ambani has been the merger of RIL and RPL. The merger has been described as the biggest in the Indian Corporate history. The merger will create the biggest single-location petro refinery in the world at Jamnagar in Gujarat. It is also a shareholder-friendly transaction. This achievement has added another feather in the cap of Mukesh Ambani and earned him a distinct place in the global oil market. For such noble and notable achievements and praise-worthy national contribution to Indian economy should not Mukesh Ambani be rewarded at the National Level? Unfortunately in our country recognition comes, more often than not, too late and too little; sometimes at the fag-end of a person's career or even posthumously. Some are awarded too early even at the prime of their young careers. Some really deserving ones are overlooked. Dhirubhai Ambani was one of them. Shri Pramod Mahajan the then Minister of Communications had, while releasing a postal stamp in honour of the late Dhirubhai, did express the wish about conferment of Padma award on Shri Dhirubhai, but that did not happen.

His illustrious son Mukesh Ambani has now proved to be Asia's greatest gas finder. He has done this to help farmers, fulfill our energy requirements and save huge import bill of India. He has performed his task with a missionary zeal, patriotic fervour and in a spirit of "WE CAN DO IT". He is unflinching in his belief that the twenty-first century will be India's. Like his late father, for Mukesh Ambani, Reliance group means something more than a mere business venture. In running the business he is motivated by the credo that Reliance should be turned into a global brand of an enabled and enabling India and link businesses with the core belief that what is good for India cannot but be good for Reliance. His value judgement and vision is reflected when he once observed, "History has summoned my generation of entrepreneurs to act as die avant-garde of resurgent India." This is the legacy left by late Dhirbhai which Mukesh is carrying. He has also dreamt to lead India on all fronts. The latest historical land-mark of merger of RIL and RPL has earned him a sobriquet of "Indian Shaikh". The KG-D6 gas find has veritably proved that he is "Farmers' Messiah". It is high time that Nation recognises his role as one of the makers of modern India, in this first decade of the twenty-first century.

His vision, as spelt out by him recently is: rather than countries aping Silicon Valley's success, in the next 20 years projects in rural India will be scaled elsewhere in the world. "Peter Drucker said managers are those who do things right, and leaders are those who do the right things." He referred to his father's principle on leadership which was winning the respect of employees, customers, stakeholders and investors. According to his "leadership is about your soul, your values and convictions; your heart in terms of your passion and compassion and your brain in terms of both knowledge and ability to execute your ideas." Truly he is the role model for Indian youth. As a philosopher said: "A man's true wealth here-after is the good he does in tins world."
Mukesh Ambani has been named the world's fifth biggest 'sustainable value creator' in a list of 25 top companies in terms of investor returns over a decade. The petrochemicals giant is the only Indian company on the list.
About the Author
Mukesh Ambani, CMD, Reliance has been named the world's fifth biggest sustainable value creator in a list of top 25 companies with RIL being the only Indian company on the list.