This is the company’s second oil major find after the offshore oilfield in the Krishna-Godavari basin.

The new oil find is expected to help increase domestic fuel supplies.

In a statement, Reliance Industries said that it struck oil in the 5th well it drilled on the 635-square-kilometre CB-ONN-2003/1 block in the Cambay Basin, located about 130 kilometres from Ahmedabad, in Gujarat.

Reliance Industries holds 100% participating interest (PI) in CB-ONN-2003/1 block.

The block, spread over an area of 635 square kilometers, has two parts – Part A situated in the west, with an area of 570 square kilometres, and Part B lying to the east, having an area of 65 square kilometres.

The company did not, however, disclose how much reserves the new oilfield might hold.

The CB-ONN-2003/1 block was awarded to Reliance Industries Limited in the 5th round of bidding under the New Exploration Licensing Policy (NELP).

Reliance Industries Limited, the most valuable company in India, holds 100% participating interest in the CB-ONN-2003/1 block.

The statement from Reliance Industries said that the 5th well on the Cambay onland block – CB10A-A1 – was drilled to a depth of 1451 metres. The well gave out around 500 barrels of oil a day at the time of conventional testing.

According to the company, the new oil find – named ‘Dhirubhai-43’ – is expected to open “future potential within the block” and that the commercial viability of this discovery is being established through gathering more data and though analysis.

RIL said that while the 3D Seismic data has been obtained over 80% of the area in the block, the 2D Seismic data from the entire area has been received.

It may be noted that Reliance Industries Limited, the largest operator of gasfield in India, had not taken part in an auction of 70 oil and gas blocks held in 2009, for which 36 bids had been received.

Earlier, the company had come across reserves of crude oil in the mainly gas-rich KG D-6 block, off India’s east coast. The Mukesh Ambani Field (MA Field), which started production in September 2008, at present yields about 11,000 barrels of crude oil a day.

Reliance Industries is the biggest conglomerate in India, with interests in oil refining, petrochemicals, exploration of oil and gas, and retailing.

India imports over 75% of crude oil it requires.

According to analysts, the country’s production of crude output is likely to increase by 11% to 36.7 million metric tones in 2009, thanks to the starting of production at an oilfield in Rajasthan that is operated by Cairn India Limited.

Bombardier, which recently expanded its presence in India through its transportation business dedicated to railway equipment, has set its major railway vehicle manufacturing site on stream.

The new production site, representing an investment of 33 million euros, will directly generate 750 new jobs dedicated to railway vehicle production. In addition, a further 2000 indirect jobs will be created based on increased activity in Bombardier’s local supplier base. The company said that the new investment underlines Bombardier Transportation’s long-term commitment to India, a market where the company has been active for almost 35 years This will also make Vadodara the only city in the world equipped to deliver all key electrical and mechanical components for the manufacturing of railway vehicles.

The company said that its Savli manufacturing site, built in a record 18 months, will be operating soon. The first railway cars are expected to roll out of the assembly lines at Salvi by March 2009. Bombardier’s new manufacturing site in India was designed and built from scratch following the most modern industrial standards worldwide and based on a transfer of technology from Bombardier’s state-of-the-art railway vehicle manufacturing plant located in Gorlitz, Germany, it added.

Meanwhile, the new manufacturing site at Vadodara is set to serve projects in India as well as in the South East Asia region, the first order of which being the delivery of 424 Bombardier Movia metro cars to the Delhi Metro Rail Corporation .

Bombardier Transportation has been present in India for over 35 years, supplying the Indian Railways with technologically advanced rail products, such as the WAP5 and WAG9 electric locomotives for passenger and freight applications and the Mumbai Traffic Management System. This system controls the 60-km rail stretch around Mumbai, which is one of the world’s heaviest rail commuter traffic areas. It is along this route that the Western Railways runs as many as 1,000 trains everyday.