Reliance Names Van De Vivjer as CEO of Global Business Arm

Mumbai, India, December 25, 2009 --(PR.com)-- Reliance Industries (RIL), India’s biggest private company by sales and market value has appointed Walter Van De Vivjer as president and chief executive officer chief executive officer of its international business subsidiary Reliance Exploration & Production DMCC (REP).

Mr. Van De Vivjer has been associated with Reliance as a consultant over the past three years. He will succeed Atul Chandra, who will work with the chairman’s office as senior adviser on international business opportunities, said an RIL statement released on Thursday.

According to the statement, Mr Van De Vivjer will be responsible for overseeing the operations of RIL’s current portfolio of international assets, and he would also focus on developing the company’s E&P portfolio in North America and other high potential foreign countries.

Reliance Group, with a cash reserve of $4 billion, has been aggressively scouting for opportunities to acquire energy assets overseas. Over the years, it has successfully acquired oil assets in Yemen, Oman, East Timor, Columbia, Kurdistan and Australia. Last month, it has put in a non-binding preliminary bid to acquire the Dutch petrochem company LyondellBasell.

Mr Van De Vivjer was formerly associated with the global oil company Royal Dutch Shell. During his association with Shell for over 25 year, Mr Van De Vivjer has gained extensive technical and managerial experience in both the upstream and downstream oil industries in various countries, including the Netherlands, the UK, the US, Qatar and Oman. He left Shell in 2004.

Mr Van De Vivjer, a civil engineer from Delft University of Technology, had also served as CEO and co-founder of Delta Hydrocarbons BV.

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