Mukesh Ambani’s Reliance Industries Ltd has completed the spin-off of the firm’s oil-to-chemical business into a new unit that will help it pursue growth opportunities with strategic partnerships, the company has said.

The oil-to-chemical (O2C) business unit holds Reliance’s oil refinery and petrochemical assets and retail fuel business but not upstream oil and gas producing fields such as KG-D6 and textiles business.

Reliance for the first time reported integrated earnings of the O2C business in its third-quarter financial results. Earlier, the refining and petrochemical businesses were reported separately while fuel retailing revenue was part of the firm’s overall retail business.

In the October-December 2020 earnings statement, earnings of the refining and petrochemical as well as fuel retailing businesses were reported as one. As a result, it did not give refining margins — the most sought after number to assess the firm’s oil refining business.

“Reorganising refining and petrochemicals as oil-to-chemicals (O2C) reflects new strategy as well as management matrix,” the company said in a post earning investor presentation.

This, it said, will “facilitate holistic and agile decision making” as well as “pursue attractive opportunities for growth with strategic partnerships”.

Reliance started work on hiving off the O2C business into a separate unit last year for a possible stake sale to companies such as Saudi Aramco.

It values the O2C business at $75 billion and has been in talks with Saudi Arabian Oil Co (Aramco) for sale of a 20 per cent interest.

The company, however, did not mention discussions with Aramco, which are said to have hit a valuation roadblock.

The reorganisation would “drive the move towards further downstream and closer to customers” and “provide sustainable and affordable energy and materials solutions to meet India’s growing needs,” the firm said in the presentation.