New Delhi, India — United States Secretary of State Marco Rubio has arrived in India for a two-day go to, throughout which he’s set to tour the Jamnagar refinery advanced in Gujarat, owned by billionaire Mukesh Ambani’s Reliance Industries, a serious participant in world oil markets.
Reliance’s crude refinery in Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s residence state is the world’s largest single-site refinery. In some ways, Reliance Industries’ companies sit on the crossroads of the continuing world power disaster.
The conglomerate is central to Washington’s efforts to punish Russian power consumers, whereas additionally attempting to include oil costs amid the conflict on Iran, on prime of rising diesel prices within the US, the place a vital midterm election looms. Reliance has additionally solely lately dedicated to a serious funding within the US, which President Donald Trump’s administration has cited for instance of its successes in luring world capital.
Rubio is skipping the capital, New Delhi, at a time when the US-India bilateral relationship has been rocky, strained by a string of friction factors — and an elusive commerce deal.
So why is the highest US diplomat visiting the world’s largest single-site oil refinery?
The place is Rubio visiting?
After conferences in Mumbai, India’s monetary hub within the western state of Maharashtra, Rubio will fly to Jamnagar in neighbouring Gujarat, close to the Gulf of Kutch. Jamnagar opens into the Arabian Sea and is residence to Reliance Industries’ refining advanced, a serious hub for crude processing and gasoline exports, which processes 1.4 million barrels per day (bpd).
Rubio had visited India earlier this yr too, however this journey “is a bit more business-focused”, the US ambassador to India, Sergio Gor, advised reporters final week. A readout from Rubio’s workplace famous that he would “meet with enterprise leaders to advertise alternatives for business funding and financial cooperation”.
“[At Jamnagar] he’ll meet a few of the of us at Reliance,” Gor mentioned.
What’s in Jamnagar?
The world’s largest single-site oil-refining advanced has a mixed crude-processing capability of 1.4 million bpd. That’s almost 1.5 % of worldwide refining capability, based on the corporate.
The advanced contains two refineries: the unique facility, commissioned in 1999 with a capability of 660,000bpd, and a second, export-oriented refinery commissioned in 2008, including 580,000bpd, which operates in a particular financial zone.
Jamnagar imports crude from worldwide suppliers and exports refined merchandise to world markets. The refinery can course of heavy, sulphur-rich crude that many services can’t deal with effectively, changing oil into higher-value merchandise.
Reliance mentioned final month that the advanced has processed greater than 216 crude grades, claiming to be “maybe the one refinery to realize this feat”.
The Jamnagar refinery’s capability can also be driving a pointy revival in imports of Venezuelan crude — taken over by the US earlier this yr after abducting then-President Nicolas Maduro — as Washington seeks to reshape world oil commerce.
Reliance is anticipated to account for roughly 350,000bpd to 370,000bpd of the October consumption, based on estimates from analytics agency Kpler. “We’ll speak with Reliance about refining extra Venezuelan crude,” Rubio advised reporters in short remarks on Tuesday.
Why is the refinery important for world power provides?
Reliance is a central participant in conserving world oil markets secure, as one of many world’s largest suppliers of refined petroleum merchandise. In September, for example, six of the seven giant cargo ships that docked at European Union ports carrying oil merchandise have been bearing Reliance items.
Reliance’s largest export is diesel, which Trump has been notably fearful about, with costs reaching historic highs within the US forward of midterm elections early subsequent month.
Although the info on exports by class isn’t public, an evaluation by the Reuters information company from commerce sources famous that Reliance Industries exported 21.66 million tonnes of refined petroleum merchandise within the first half of 2025 from Jamnagar. Diesel accounted for the most important share at 9.81 million tonnes, adopted by petrol at 6.14 million tonnes and jet gasoline at 2.06 million tonnes.
Europe accounted for the largest share of the corporate’s exports, making up 28 % of Reliance’s refined merchandise through the interval. Consumers embody BP, ExxonMobil, Glencore, Vitol and Trafigura.
The Jamnagar refinery additionally shipped about $143m value of oil merchandise to the US final month, based on information cited by the Centre for Analysis on Power and Clear Air (CREA), a suppose tank in Finland.
CREA famous in its report that the EU’s ban on importing petroleum merchandise comprised of Russian crude from January 2026 doesn’t adequately forestall merchandise from refineries in third international locations from getting into Europe when these refineries additionally course of Russian crude. The Jamnagar refinery is a primary instance of that loophole.
Rubio’s go to to the refinery additionally comes as Trump faces his worst approval rankings amid inflation and rising gasoline costs forward of the midterm election in November. Nearly 31 % of Individuals are pleased with Trump’s efficiency – the lowest-ever quantity in his two phrases, based on a Reuters/Ipsos survey.
The Trump administration has additionally reportedly been pushing Ukraine’s President Volodymyr Zelenskyy to cease strikes on Russian power services, which have rattled the worldwide gasoline markets.
Why the refinery is essential for the Russia-Ukraine conflict
Reliance is also a critical actor in US efforts to affect how a lot oil Russia sells.
For the reason that begin of Russia’s full-fledged conflict on Ukraine in February 2022, India has emerged because the second-largest purchaser of Russian oil after China. And Reliance is driving that surge in imports. Whereas solely 3 % of its oil was sourced from Russia earlier than 2022, that share rose to 50 % by 2025.
So when Trump imposed an extra 25 % tariff on Indian items in August 2025 to punish New Delhi for the acquisition of Russian oil, Reliance was immediately affected. It in the reduction of on Russian crude imports considerably in subsequent months, however it nonetheless made up a 3rd of the oil processed by Jamnagar’s refinery through the July-September 2026 quarter.
That was underneath menace when the Trump administration appeared poised to impose a one hundred pc tariff on Indian items due to continued Russian oil imports, underneath a brand new regulation handed final month.
However Trump has since suspended these proposed tariffs, easing considerations for India and Reliance.
Rubio has mentioned India has been diversifying its import combine away from Russian crude, even because it nonetheless buys tens of millions of barrels of Russian oil day-after-day. “You’ve received international locations like India, for instance, which have voluntarily diversified their power portfolio, however are nonetheless getting a considerable quantity of power from Russia as a result of it’s onerous to pivot from sooner or later to the subsequent,” Rubio mentioned on Sunday.
“However they’re additionally an essential ally and accomplice of the USA.”
Is Reliance additionally investing within the US?
Sure, India’s richest man, Mukesh Ambani, the chairman and managing director of Reliance Industries, is investing within the US, primarily by way of energy-related tasks.
It’s backing America First Refining’s deliberate oil refinery on the Port of Brownsville in Texas, additionally the primary main US refinery in about 50 years, introduced by Trump in March.
The refinery is anticipated to value $3bn to $4bn and course of about 60 million barrels of US crude yearly. Reliance has signed a 20-year settlement to purchase a big share of the power’s output, with operations anticipated to begin round 2029.
In November 2024, Reliance’s US subsidiary additionally acquired a 21 % stake in helium explorer Wavetech Helium for $12m as a part of its low-carbon power technique.
Final month, Trump introduced that India’s Essar Group — an oil main with knee-deep ties to Russia — is planning an $18bn built-in metal funding within the US by way of its subsidiary, Mesabi Metallics.
Didn’t Trump’s ally simply lock horns with Ambani?
Regardless of Reliance’s investments within the US and Rubio’s upcoming go to to the Jamnagar facility, Elon Musk, the world’s richest man who can also be a key Trump ally, lately hit out at Ambani.
His Starlink house telecommunications agency has struggled for years to safe a licence to function in India.
In a collection of X posts lately, Musk accused Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s authorities of stalling Starlink’s entry to favour market chief Ambani’s telecom agency, Jio. Musk taunted Ambani immediately, addressing him as “Prime Minister Ambani” and asking whether or not he would “contemplate permitting Starlink to compete”. Starlink, Musk wrote, was being blocked by “oligarchs” defending their “monopolistic chokehold” on Indians.
In a press release issued on X, Reliance mentioned it has “by no means feared competitors” and has “grown in an India that welcomes funding and innovation, homegrown or worldwide”.
