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Marco Rubio Tours Jamnagar Refinery, Seeks More Venezuelan Heavy Crude Refining
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Rubio toured Jamnagar, the world’s largest single-site refinery. The plant can refine Venezuelan heavy crude.
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Rubio tours Jamnagar
U.S. Secretary of State Marco Rubio toured the Jamnagar oil complex in India on Wednesday, a site described as the world’s largest refinery in a single location and capable of refining Venezuela’s heavy crude.
Rubio told reporters in Mumbai, “This company has the capacity to refine the heavy crude produced in the Western Hemisphere, including Venezuela’s,” before departing to the plant.
Sergio Gor, the U.S. ambassador to India, released a photo on X showing almost the entire Mukesh Ambani family, led by Anant Ambani and his wife Radhika Merchant, posing with Rubio, his wife Jeanette Rubio, and Ambassador Gor after the tour.
Rubio’s Jamnagar visit followed his remarks that he would pursue a plan to refine more Venezuelan oil at the facility after he labeled India a “refining superpower.”
Capacity, crude, and diesel
Reliance Industries Chairman Mukesh Ambani and Executive Director Anant Ambani hosted Rubio and U.S. Ambassador to India Sergio Gor at the company’s Jamnagar complex in Gujarat on Wednesday.
The Jamnagar refinery complex processes 1.4 million barrels per day (bpd), and it comprises two refineries, with the original facility commissioned in 1999 and a second export-oriented refinery commissioned in 2008.
Rubio said, “We will talk with Reliance about refining more Venezuelan crude,” and he framed the effort as part of Washington’s push to reshape global oil trade.
Rubio also linked the Jamnagar visit to U.S. fuel pressures, as the sources describe diesel prices surging in the United States ahead of midterm elections, with Reliance’s biggest export identified as diesel.
Meetings and energy stakes
Rubio met in Mumbai with Adani Group chairman Gautam Adani and N. Chandrasekaran, chairman of Tata Sons, before heading to Jamnagar in Gujarat.
Sergio Gor told reporters that Rubio’s earlier trip to India this year was “a little more business-focused,” and a readout from Rubio’s office said he would “meet with business leaders to promote opportunities for commercial investment and economic cooperation.”
The sources tie the Jamnagar tour to Washington’s interest in Venezuelan heavy crude processing, with the Jamnagar facilities described as among the few petrochemical infrastructures designed to process Venezuela’s ultra-heavy Merey 16 crude.
The sources also connect the visit to U.S. energy strategy and election-year fuel concerns, with one account noting that Trump announced in March that Reliance would partner to build the first and largest oil refinery in the United States in 50 years in Brownsville, Texas.