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Mumbai, Aug. 7: Reliance Industries is planning to offer its oil-hunt expertise to the less fortunate players in the business, who have envied its remarkable strike record.

Reliance Industries ? which claims to have 21 successful oil strikes out of 28 drillings made in the past few years ? is planning to share its expertise in exploration-based technology such as seismic surveys and drilling, development of wells and their maintenance.

Sources said Reliance is preparing to offer its oil-hunt expertise for a fee. While enumerating the company’s accomplishments in oil exploration and production at the annual general meeting last week, RIL chairman Mukesh Ambani said the company would take its core oil and gas, petroleum refinery and petrochemicals business to a much higher trajectory.

He also said Reliance would expand its services businesses. It would be reflected in the company’s initiatives in petroleum retailing and “oil and gas drilling services”.

According to a senior RIL official, however, there was no plan to offer the company’s E&P expertise to others. He said while commenting on oil and gas drilling services, the RIL chairman was only referring to services for the company and not others.

Oil and Natural Gas Corporation (ONGC), the country’s largest oil exploration company, is also looking at leveraging Reliance’s technological expertise in exploration and develop it as a separate strategic business unit (SBU).

Although ONGC has had a pretty chequered oil-hunt record since its oil strike in Mumbai High in mid-seventies, it has smudged its reputation with a prolonged series of dry spuds. This had prompted petroleum minister Mani Shankar Aiyar to upbraid senior officials of the company.

ONGC is also keen to offer its expertise in exploration to other countries for a fee. It has already signed memoranda of understanding with a couple of West Asian nations, Bangladesh and Myanmar.

At the AGM, Ambani also announced that the company has made 10 new oil and gas discoveries in the past year. These include three discoveries in NEC 25, six in KG D6 and one in Yemen.

RIL holds a 90 per cent participating interest for exploration in the Krishna-Godavari (KG) and North Eastern Coast (NEC) basins.

The company has also won five blocks in the recently concluded fifth round of the new exploration and licensing policy.

Five more wells were drilled in the Krishna-Godavari D6 block. These have resulted in two new gas bearing geological plays.

Reliance is planning to make investments in upstream oil and gas exploration and production of up to Rs 17,600 crore in the next four to five years.