Mumbai: US Secretary of State Marco Rubio plans to encourage Reliance Industries to refine more Venezuelan crude at its Jamnagar refineries and potentially to begin producing oil in the South American country, he told reporters in Mumbai on Tuesday, Reuters reported.

"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 said. He is scheduled to visit Reliance's facilities in Jamnagar on Wednesday and meet the company's senior management, including chairman Mukesh Ambani, The Hindu BusinessLine reported, adding that Rubio described India as a "refining superpower" whose companies can refine heavy crude.

Reliance's two refineries at Jamnagar, with a combined capacity of about 1.4 million barrels per day, form the world's largest refining complex and can process ultra-heavy Venezuelan crudes. Reuters reported that Reliance has emerged as a significant importer of Venezuelan crude as the country's output has risen, and that Indian companies hold pre-existing oil concessions in Venezuela. Asked whether Reliance itself producing oil in Venezuela would be discussed, Rubio said the matter had been raised in the past and would come up again; Reliance is a major refiner of Venezuelan crude but is not currently active inside the country.

The Jamnagar leg caps Rubio's India visit days after President Donald Trump waived tariffs of up to 100 per cent on buyers of Russian oil and gas — duties that would have hit Indian products — a move Reuters said is likely to help pave the way for an India-US trade deal, even as some US lawmakers criticised the administration for being too soft on Moscow.

(Sources: Reuters, October 20, 2026; The Hindu BusinessLine, October 20, 2026)