The US is looking to persuade India's Reliance Industries Ltd. to refine more Venezuelan crude as Washington seeks to bring additional supplies to a market rattled by the Iran conflict.
The possibility will be discussed with Reliance when US Secretary of State Marco Rubio meets with Chairman Mukesh Ambani and his team, Rubio told reporters on Tuesday, shortly after arriving in Mumbai for a three-day trip
Describing India as “a refining superpower”, Rubio said the country has the capacity to handle Venezuelan crude, which is heavy and waxy and difficult to process.
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“They also, by the way, have pre-existing oil concessions in Venezuela that can produce more themselves,” he added.
Rubio is scheduled to visit Reliance's Jamnagar refining complex in Gujarat on Wednesday. Upon arrival on Tuesday, he met Indian External Affairs Minister Subrahmanyam Jaishankar. US Ambassador Sergio Gor described the talks as “productive,” saying the two sides were committed to deepening ties in defense, energy, emerging technologies and trade.
Rubio said Reliance Industries could help India diversify its energy supplies as Venezuela increases oil production, citing the Indian conglomerate's extensive refining capacity. “Venezuela is increasing its production of energy, and India's had a long history of being able to refine some of that,” Rubio said in an interview to CNBCTV18 in India on Tuesday.
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Reliance's refining capabilities could create opportunities for closer energy cooperation between the US and India, including processing supplies from the Western Hemisphere, he said. “We think there's an opportunity for them to continue to help India diversify its supply chain, its supply of energy.”
The visit comes as Washington and New Delhi seek to steady a relationship strained over trade and Russia. President Donald Trump has so far held back from imposing new penalties under a sanctions bill designed to punish Russia and championed by the late Senator Lindsey Graham, giving the two sides room to focus on where their strategic and economic interests align.
Russia remains India's biggest supplier this year, with flows reaching a record of nearly 2 million barrels a day, or about 40% of imports — up from barely 2% before Moscow's 2022 invasion of Ukraine. Venezuelan shipments have climbed to their highest since 2019, though at a far smaller 187,000 barrels a day. US flows have nearly halved, to 165,000 barrels a day, as higher freight costs eroded their competitiveness.
Rubio is also meeting about half a dozen Indian companies with US interests, including those of Gautam Adani and Ambani, two of India's richest men, the New York Times reported.
The Adani Group has pledged to invest up to $30 billion in the US after settling cases brought by the US government and the Securities and Exchange Commission. Reliance, which operates one of the world's largest refining complexes in Gujarat, has partnered on a new refinery in Brownsville, Texas.
India needs a realistic approach to its relationship with the US as Washington recalibrates how it engages globally, Jaishankar told Bloomberg Editor-in-Chief John Micklethwait last week. “The reality is the United States has repositioned itself. It's changed the manner in which it engages the world,” he said. “So I think every country, in a way, has to recalculate and reset its relationship with the United States.”
The two ministers also paid homage to the victims of the Mumbai terror attacks, laying a wreath at the memorial inside the Taj Mahal Palace.
(This story has not been edited by NDTV staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)
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