Reliance Industries Ltd., Venezuela’s top customer in India, has capped oil purchases from the Latin American country and halted selling diluent following U.S. pressure to cripple President Nicolas Maduro’s government.

“Our U.S. subsidiary has completely stopped all business with Venezuela’s state-owned oil company, PDVSA, and its global parent has not increased crude purchases," a Reliance spokesman said in an emailed statement.

Reliance Industries Ltd plans to grow the number of low-cost Reliance Trends fashion stores across India to 2,500 from 557 over the next five years and integrate them with its online business, two people briefed on the plans said.

The expansion is the latest move by the conglomerate's billionaire owner Mukesh Ambani to grab a dominant share of Indian consumer spending in a struggle with rivals, particularly e-commerce giants Amazon.com Inc and Walmart Inc's Flipkart.

New Delhi: Reliance Industries Wednesday said it has received final comments from market regulator Sebi for its proposed open offers to shareholders of Den Networks Limited and Hathway Cable and Datacom Limited.

The company will make the open offers in accordance with the SEBI (Substantial Acquisition of Shares and Takeovers) Regulations 2011, RIL said in a BSE filing.

Saudi Aramco, the world’s largest oil exporter, on Wednesday said it was in talks with Reliance Industries and other Indian firms to invest in petrochemicals and refinery projects in the country.

“India is an investment priority for Saudi Aramco. There is a lot of growth potential. We are looking at additional investments in India. We are in discussions with other companies as well, including Reliance Industries,” Saudi Aramco CEO Amin Nasser said at the Saudi Arabian General Investment Authority’s Saudi Forum meet.

In a boost to firms like ONGC and Reliance Industries, the government is likely to raise the price of domestically produced natural gas by over 10 per cent to over USD 3.72 per million British thermal unit with effect from April 1, sources in know of the development said. The price of gas produced from difficult fields will rise to about USD 9 per million British thermal unit (mmBtu) from current USD 7.67, they said. This will be the fourth straight increase in gas prices.

Reliance Industries (RIL) chairman Mukesh Ambani on Thursday said that West Bengal should go for a digital drive to lead the fourth industrial revolution with Reliance Jio already making one tenth of its total investment in the state in the digital space.

Speaking at the 5th edition of the Bengal Global Business Summit(BGBS), Ambani said Reliance Jio’s investment stands at Rs 28,000 crore in the state, one tenth of the total investment it has so far done in the digital space.

Amazon.com and Walmart’s plans to dominate India’s online retail landscape have been ambushed by Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s political priorities heading into a tightening election. The vote, likely to be held in or around May, has increased the influence of local retailers that lobbied for growth-crimping curbs on the US giants. On cue, India this month rolled out constraints on foreign e-commerce players, including Jeff Bezos-led Amazon and Walmart-owned Flipkart, which together control 70% of its online shopping.

Reliance Industries Ltd.s plan to strengthen its balance sheet will hinge on future capital spending as credit market participants zero in on whether the company will be able to slow those outlays over the next year.

The conglomerate has invested about $64 billion across telecom and retail as well as petrochemicals and oil refining expansions, Joint CFO V. Srikanth said during last weeks earnings briefing.

MUMBAI: Refining business that has traditionally done the heavy-lifting at Reliance Industries Ltd (RIL) is catching its breath, thanks to weak global demand and higher exports by the US and China. Until new shipping norms mandating higher-quality fuel take effect next year, conditions are not expected to improve much either.

The battle for the Indian consumer was never going to be an all-American affair.

Walmart Inc.’s splashy acquisition last year of Flipkart Online Services Pvt., the homegrown e-tailer giving Amazon.com Inc. a solid run for its money, might have given the impression of a two-horse race. But as I argued (here and here), billionaire Mukesh Ambani wasn’t going to watch from the sidelines.

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