The investment company has picked up 27.71 crore warrants of Reliance Petroleum, to be converted into equity shares over the two years, with an investment of Rs 383.18 crore, according to the latest annual report of Reliance Industries.

An equivalent amount of triple option convertible debentures has also been converted into equity shares of Reliance Petroleum, taking the total holding of the investment company in Reliance Petroleum to over Rs 766 crore.

At the same time, the 1998-99 fiscal has seen flagship Reliance Industries extend unsecured loans of Rs 346.13 crore to various group companies.

Reliance Industries itself, however, has not made any contribution to the equity of the petroleum company promoted by it. Its annual report shows that the petrochemicals giant, in fact, does not hold asingle share of Reliance Petroleum.

It may eventually hold a sizable stake in Reliance Petroleum once the optionally fully convertible debentures (OFCDs) held by it in the greenfield petroleum venture is converted into equity shares.

In 1998-99, Reliance Industries has fully paid up the oustandings of the OFCD issue of Reliance Petroleum resulting in an outgo of Rs 1,635.11 crore for the 14 per cent OFCDs, with a face value of Rs 770 each.

The decision to increase the size of the project, from 18 million tonnes to 27 million tonnes, has resulted in an increase in the cost of the project to Rs 14,250 crore. The capital cost per tonne of the project has declined 15 per cent to Rs 5,278 from Rs 6,238.

Reliance Industries and Reliance Industrial Investments & Holdings propose to hold upto 50 per cent of the fully diluted capital base of the petroleum company. The debt-equity ratio has been envisaged at 1:1.

Poised to be the largest grassroots refinery in the world, Reliance Petroleum will command a 25per cent share in the total refining capacity in India.

Reliance Petroleum has signed an agreement with Indian Oil Corporation for off-take of 50 per cent of its output of controlled products, primarily high-speed diesel, gasoline and liquefied petroleum gas.

Similar arrangements are also expected to be sealed with two other public sector oil majors - Hindustan Petroleum Corp and Bharat Petroleum Corp.

Reliance group companies are expected to consume 25-30 per cent of the total production of decontrolled products from the 27 million tonne refinery. These include naphtha, reformate, propylene, kerosene and petroleum coke.