Rubio tours Reliance’s Jamnagar refinery, pushes energy ties

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India’s share of LPG imports from the US surged to 67% from 10% over the past year, making it the country’s largest supplier, says Sergio Gor

By BL New Delhi Bureau

Updated - October 21, 2026 at 09:00 PM. | New Delhi

US Secretary of State Marco Rubio, US Ambassador Sergio Gor, Executive Director of Reliance Industries Anant Ambani with wife Radhika Merchant and others during Rubio’s visit to Reliance Industries’ giant oil-refining complex in Jamnagar, Gujarat.

US Secretary of State Marco Rubio visited Reliance Industries’ Jamnagar facilities on Wednesday to explore closer energy cooperation, as Washington seeks to expand American fuel exports to India and attract investment in US refining. 

US Ambassador to India Sergio Gor, who accompanied Rubio, said India’s share of LPG imports sourced from the US had surged from under 10 per cent to 67 per cent over the past year, making it the country’s largest supplier.

“Reliance’s planned investment in the first new US oil refinery in 50 years is another major opportunity to expand American energy production and create jobs,” he wrote on social media platform X.

Refining “superpower”

Rubio described India as a refining “superpower” during his Mumbai engagements and advocated greater processing of Venezuelan crude in India.

He also said Washington wanted to work more closely with the conglomerate on refining energy from the Western Hemisphere, noting such cooperation would benefit both countries.

Summing up the tour, the US State Department said Rubio’s second visit to India this year had focused on Mumbai and Jamnagar, two major hubs of finance, energy and culture.

“The US-India relationship is central to US security and prosperity. This visit underscores our commitment to commercial investment, energy cooperation, and the strategic partnership between our two democracies,” it said.

Reliance’s Jamnagar complex, with a crude-processing capacity of about 1.4 million barrels a day, is the world’s largest single-site refining complex.

Expanding market

Its ability to process different grades of crude and export refined fuels makes it strategically important to US efforts to expand markets for oil from the Western Hemisphere.

Reliance Chairman and Managing Director Mukesh Ambani, his wife Nita Ambani and their children Isha and Anant received Rubio during the visit, which also included stops at the group’s Vantara animal-rescue centre and its developing green-energy manufacturing complex.

The visit comes amid plans by Reliance to partner in a new 168,000-barrel-a-day refinery project in Brownsville, Texas. If completed, the facility would be the first major new refinery built in the US in about five decades.

The project offers a reciprocal dimension to the energy relationship, with Reliance potentially expanding its refining footprint in the US even as its Jamnagar operations remain a major outlet for globally sourced crude.

Published on October 21, 2026

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