BP bets on India as Libya wobbles

Reliance India Ltd's $7.2 billion deal (might go up to $20 billion) with oil and gas major BP was announced on the same day when BP stopped its operations in Libya.

BP is the largest player in Libya's oil exploration and production and the Libyan reserves add up to almost three per cent of global oil and gas reserves. BP has major stakes in Libya and might have to evacuate its employees from Libya to protect them.

BP's investments in the RIL blocks in India is therefore a major balancing factor for the company, especially as it said on Monday that the Indian blocks have reserves equivalent to the premium North Sea reserves.

Meanwhile on Monday the BSE Sensex reacted to the news of the RIL-BP deal with glee and alacrity. It was also buoyed by the news that foreign brokerages CLSA and Credit Suisse have upgraded their recommendations for Wipro.

So the Sensex went up by 1.3 per cent while the RIL scrip went up 2 per cent and Wipro went up 4.1 per cent. Just for comparison, TCS went up 4.2 per cent and ONGC went up by 3 per cent as oil prices jumped on bad news from Libya.

Mukesh Ambani said that all this money will come into Reliance Industries and again reiterated his dream of taking the gas into millions of homes.

RIL stock will be the one to watch now.