US Secretary of State Marco Rubio said on Tuesday that the US will negotiate with the company to import more crude oil from Venezuela and process it at the Jamnagar-based Reliance Industries Limited (RIL) refinery.
This issue has become important because the US has taken control of Venezuela's oil fields. These oil fields produce heavy crude oil that cannot be processed in most refineries. Reliance's refinery located off the coast of Gujarat has the required technical capacity to process this heavy crude.
Rubio began his three-day visit to India after reaching Mumbai. He met Maharashtra Chief Minister Devendra Fadnavis at the Gateway of India.
In Mumbai, Foreign Minister S. In his talks with Jaishankar, policy issues related to trade talks, energy cooperation, technology partnership, critical minerals and imports of Russian and Venezuelan crude were discussed.
India and the US are expected to pursue cooperation in the areas of trade, energy, investment, defense and critical technologies. This is Rubio's second visit to India in 2026. He recently said that the comprehensive trade agreement between the two countries is almost completed. It is expected that it may be signed during his visit.
President Donald Trump waived potential charges last week. These tariffs were initially intended to take punitive action on India for purchasing Russian crude oil.
Trump, through an executive order, has waived 100 percent of the tariffs imposed on the five largest importers of Russian oil. This would have also included India, which is the second largest buyer of Russian oil after China.
Rubio has said that trying to finalize a trade agreement was also a reason for the decision to waive these tariffs. Last week, the US Secretary of State had defended India and described it as an important ally of America.
“For example, there are countries like India that have voluntarily diversified their energy sources, but they are still buying a lot of energy from Russia because it is difficult to change the source of energy supply from one day to the next,” Rubio said.
“But India is also an important ally and partner of America,” he said.
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