Marco Rubio arrives in Jamnagar to visit Reliance Refinery

US Secretary of State Marco Rubio and his wife Jeanette Rubio before boarding a plane en route to Jamnagar on October 21, 2026 | Photo credit: Reuters via AP

US Secretary of State Marco Rubio arrived in the Gujarat city of Jamnagar on Wednesday (October 21, 2026) to visit the Mukesh Ambani-owned Reliance Industries Ltd oil refinery complex, a day after he described India as a “petroleum refining powerhouse”.

Mr. Rubio is on a three-day visit to India to deepen bilateral ties in energy, trade and investment, defense and critical technologies, besides exchanging views on the crisis in West Asia.

During his visit, Mr. Rubio is scheduled to tour the Jamnagar refinery complex, which takes on significance in the context of his remarks about India’s oil refining capabilities and his demand for more Venezuelan oil to be processed in the country.

According to RIL’s website, its Jamnagar refinery is “the world’s largest and most complex single-run refinery with an oil processing capacity of 1.4 million barrels per day (MMBPD) and a complexity index of 21.1 – the highest in the world”.

It states that “the refinery has processed more than 216 different types of crude oil produced in the world – possibly the only refinery to achieve this feat”.

The Jamnagar refinery complex houses some of the world’s largest units such as Fluidised Catalytic Cracker (FCC), Coker, Alkylation, Paraxylene, Polypropylene, Refinery Off-Gas Cracker (ROGC) and Petcoke gasification plants, the company said.

The US Secretary of State arrived in Mumbai on Tuesday, where External Affairs Minister S. Jaishankar hosted him for wide-ranging talks on bilateral cooperation.

Meeting with Gautam Adani, N. Chandrasekaran

Mr. Rubio met Adani Group chairman Gautam Adani and Tata Sons chairman N. Chandrasekaran in Mumbai on Wednesday morning before heading to Jamnagar.

Neither side released details of the meetings.

Published – 21 Oct 2026 14:12 IST