Saudi Aramco is in advanced talks with India-based Reliance Industries Limited to acquire a stake in its oil refining and chemicals business, local reports have said.
This is expected to be an all-stock deal, where Aramco will get a 20% share of RIL for about $20-25 billion worth of its own shares.
Reliance is a multi-vertical group backed by Indian billionaire Mukesh Ambani, one of the wealthiest men in Asia.
It is expected to reach an agreement with Aramco in the coming weeks, said the local reports.
RIL shares gained around 2.6 percent in value in Mumbai, where it is listed, after initial details of this deal became public.
The deal is expected to result in closer ties between the world’s biggest oil exporter and one of the world’s fastest-growing energy consumers.
It would be the possible culmination of more than two years of negotiations, and also mark Aramco’s first all-stock deal since its initial public offering in 2019.
Ambani confirmed talks about a deal with an implied stake valuation of $15 billion that year.
Discussions were delayed by the onset of the coronavirus pandemic and slump in oil prices.
A deal would help Reliance lock in a steady supply of crude oil for its giant refineries and make the Indian company a shareholder in Aramco.
Based on Aramco’s market valuation of about $1.9 trillion, the transaction would give Reliance a stake of around 1 percent in the world’s biggest energy company.
Aramco chairman Yasir Al-Rumayyan, who is also the governor of Saudi Arabia’s Public Investment Fund, was inducted into the RIL board in June in the run-up to this deal.