LAHORE MIRROR (AFP) — US Secretary of State Marco Rubio plans to encourage India’s Reliance Industries to refine more Venezuelan crude at its local refineries and potentially begin producing oil in the South American country, he told reporters in Mumbai on Tuesday.
Rubio landed in India’s sweltering financial capital days after President Donald Trump waived potential sanctions on the world’s top buyers of Russian oil, a list that includes India. The move is likely to help pave the way for a trade deal between New Delhi and Washington, but has been panned by US lawmakers, who complain that the Trump administration has been far too soft on Moscow.
During the two-day visit to Mumbai and Jamnagar in the western part of the country, Rubio is slated to meet government and business leaders, including Foreign Minister S. Jaishankar and billionaire Mukesh Ambani, chairman of Reliance Industries, which operates the world’s largest refining complex.
“We will talk about (refining more Venezuelan crude) tomorrow with Reliance…They have done so in the past, and I think as more and more of Venezuelan oil comes online, that is something they can do,” Rubio told reporters.
Reliance’s two massive refineries at the Jamnagar complex, with a combined capacity of about 1.4 million barrels per day of crude oil, are able to process the ultra-heavy crudes coming out of Venezuela, some of which have a sludge-like consistency. As Venezuela’s oil production has increased following the Trump administration’s capture of former Venezuelan leader Nicolas Maduro in January, Reliance has emerged as a significant importer of the nation’s crude.
