India's Reliance: revenue from new refinery this yr

MUMBAI, June 9 (Reuters) - India's Reliance Industries Ltd (RELI.BO) expects to start making revenues from its new 580,000 barrels per day (bpd) oil refinery this year, its chairman said.

The refinery, which is being built by unit Reliance Petroleum RPET.BO, will have a lead over other upcoming export refineries in Asia and the Middle East, and is expected to make robust margins, Mukesh Ambani told shareholders at the weekend.

Together with Reliance Industries' existing 660,000 bpd refinery, the new unit will make the Jamnagar complex in western Gujarat state the world's biggest, with a capacity of 1.2 million bpd.

Chevron Corp (CVX.N) holds 5 percent in Reliance Petroleum.

A source had told Reuters in April Reliance will begin testing its new refinery in July and commission it in September.

"At time of the refinery project announcement, a number of large-scale greenfield export refineries had also been announced in the Middle East and Asia," Ambani said at the weekend.

"RPL will be the first off the mark with a multi-year lead over other greenfield refineries. This will give it a huge advantage," he said, adding the refinery will start generating revenues "from this year itself".

The supply from the new refinery will represent almost half of the estimated global oil demand growth in 2009, and should increase global production capacity of both petrol and diesel by around 1 percent, he said.

Demand for energy was expected to remain buoyant, and the long-term outlook for refining margins "continues to be positive, specially for complex refiners," Ambani said.

"This is because of robust demand, tight product supplies and slow growth of new capacities dogging an already stretched refining system."

For more stories on the world's biggest refinery, see [ID:nSP5056] (Reporting by Rina Chandran; Editing by Ranjit Gangadharan)