Chairman of the country?s biggest private-sector oil and gas company, Reliance Industries, Mukesh Ambani, said on Wednesday that the sharp slump in the crude oil prices have posed big challenges for the oil refining companies.

Talking specifically about his company, Ambani said, ?I remember the time when we had started our first refinery at Jamnagar in 1999. Just as we were ready with our first consignment, the world had gone into recession. The history seems to be repeating itself as, just when we are getting ready to commission our second refinery at Jamnagar, the global recession has set in again.?

The remarks made by Mukesh Ambani on the impact of the global economic downtrend on the oil refining sector assume significance as they come barely weeks away from starting its new, only-for exports oil refinery. The 6,60,000 barrels per day refinery, being constructed by Reliance Petroleum – a unit of RIL, is to be completed by the end of 2008. Crude oil prices in the international market have fallen by two-thirds over the past four months. Interestingly, it took 40 months for oil prices to rise from $50 a barrel to almost $150 a barrel and just four months for them to crash to the current lows. Also, currently the prices of petrol and industrial fuels such as petrol and naphtha are cheaper than the crude itself.

Ambani was speaking in the presence of the chief executive of the world?s largest oil producer Saudi Aramco?s chief executive Abdullah Jum?ah who said that world over the talk is that the peak oil has died down in the wake of prevailing financial and economic crisis and the oil prices falling by almost two-thirds from the peak of nearly $150 a barrel, not too long ago. He said the oil industry is cyclic in nature and at this hour the need is to talk about long-term trends rather than focussing on the ?short-term doom and gloom.?

Jum?ah said the estimated investment required by the oil industry between now and 2030 is off the order of some six trillion dollars.

Ambani agreed that stable oil prices were the need of the hour to sustain investments and economic growth. He added that energy had a crucial role to play in economic prosperity and social equity and it has to be made available, accessible and affordable.

According to Ambani, availability was not an issue as two trillion barrels of conventional oil reserves still remained to be exploited that would be enough to support world demand for 3-4 decades. Another trillion barrel reserves, he said, are trapped in non-conventional sources such as oil shells and tar sands. ?But accessibility is an issue as most of the reserves are in hostile and remote physical environments. Affordability is (also) an issue,? he added.

Crude at even $60 per barrel is unaffordable to many nations. ?One time (oil-cartel) OPEC had talked of maintaining crude oil price in a band of $ 25-30 a barrel. This would be necessary (for) economic prosperity,” he added. Ambani stressed on proactive approach to efficient use of energy.

And one of the ways for efficient use of energy was building nuclear power plants, he said. ?While we debated, other nations created nuclear plants.”