Rubio calls India a refining superpower. How a crude-importing nation became a top refiner

From a small refinery in Assam's Digboi to the world's largest refining complex in Jamnagar, India's oil-refining industry has grown by leaps and bounds. US Secretary of State, Marco Rubio, is calling India a refining superpower. This is how a crude-importing nation became a top refiner.

US Secretary of State, Marco Rubio, is currently in India, visiting not New Delhi, but rather the city of Mumbai and the town of Jamnagar, where he is set to spend a good amount of time with executives of the Indian business giant, Reliance Industries, including its Chairperson, Mukesh Ambani. It was in the course of this visit that Rubio made an interesting remark. Speaking to reporters on Tuesday, the Secretary of State called India a "refining superpower".

India presents a curious case in the global oil industry. Countries with extensive refining networks often have substantial crude oil resources of their own, as seen in the US, Russia and several Persian Gulf nations.

India, in contrast, does not have that resource advantage. Its own crude reserves in Gujarat, Assam, Rajasthan, Mumbai High and the Krishna-Godavari basin are insufficient to meet the country's energy demands. In the financial year 2025-26, India imported around 89% of the crude oil it consumed, according to government data.

Yet, while many countries (with a few notable exceptions like Japan and South Korea) with low domestic reserves usually take the easy way out and directly import refined products such as petrol, diesel and aviation turbine fuel (ATF), India took a different path. Instead of importing refined fuel, the country has, over the years, set up a massive network of oil refineries across the country, run by both state-owned Public Sector Undertakings (PSUs) and, increasingly, private players.

The result is a striking duality. India remains one of the world's largest crude oil importers, but it is also a major producer and exporter of refined petroleum products.

With an installed refining capacity of 258.1 million tonnes per annum across 22 operational refineries, India ranked as the world's fourth-largest refiner in 2026. It exported 61.5 million tonnes of petroleum products in the financial year 2025-26, according to the Ministry of Petroleum and Natural Gas.

So how did a crude-importing nation become a "refining superpower"?

WHY DID RUBIO CALL INDIA A REFINING SUPERPOWER?

US Secretary of State, Marco Rubio, called India a "refining superpower" on Tuesday, citing its ability to process several crude variants, including the heavy Venezuelan variant.

The remark came during his visit to Mumbai, where he met External Affairs Minister, Subramanya Jaishankar. Rubio is set to visit Reliance Industries' Jamnagar refinery in Gujarat on Wednesday, where he is expected to discuss the possibility of Reliance refining more Venezuelan oil.

"It's not just being able to produce oil," Rubio said. "I think what a lot of people have become experts in the energy field over the last few months, just learning because of these conflicts, refining capability is a key part of it, and India is a refining superpower."

He said Indian companies had the expertise to process Venezuelan crude. "They've done so in the past, and I think as more and more Venezuelan oil comes online, that's something they could do," Rubio said, adding that increased production could provide some relief amid global supply disruptions.

India Today Digital had first said that it was diesel that was bringing Rubio to Jamnagar.

Rubio's focus on Venezuelan crude comes as Washington seeks to ramp up the country's oil production following the capture of Venezuelan president Nicolas Maduro. Despite holding some of the world's largest crude reserves, Venezuela's oil industry has been weakened by years of sanctions and deteriorating infrastructure.

Speaking to Network18 ahead of his scheduled visit to Reliance Industries' Jamnagar refinery in Gujarat on Wednesday, Rubio explained why he wanted to meet the company's leadership. "Petroleum is useless if you don't refine it into a usable product," he said, describing Reliance as a company with "extraordinary capacity to refine energy".

The Jamnagar Refinery Complex is equipped to process Venezuelan heavy crude, and Reuters reported that Reliance has emerged as a significant buyer of Venezuelan oil since Maduro's capture.

Rubio said Reliance could help India diversify its energy supplies and highlighted the company's investments in US refining capacity. He also linked refining to national security, saying, "Energy is related to national security. You know, countries fight wars over energy, as an example. Economies collapse over lack of energy."

The Jamnagar refinery in Gujarat, operated by Reliance, is the world's largest refining complex. Its two refineries have a combined capacity of about 1.4 million barrels of crude oil per day and can process at least 240 grades of crude oil, including the ultra-heavy type from Venezuela.

That flexibility is particularly relevant to Washington as it seeks to expand Venezuelan oil production. Heavy Venezuelan crude requires specialised processing, which most of the world's refineries are not geared towards.

Jamnagar's significance for the US extends beyond the possibility of Reliance buying more Venezuelan crude. By processing additional supplies from Venezuela and exporting finished fuels, Indian refineries could help increase the availability of petroleum products on international markets, potentially easing supply pressures elsewhere.

This matters as the US grapples with oil-market disruption linked to its war with Iran, with high domestic fuel prices a concern ahead of November's midterm elections.

All this being said, Jamnagar is only one piece of India's massive refining infrastructure. It is a big one, but still just one piece of the infrastructure that enables the country to stake a sizeable claim to the title of "refining superpower".

WHY INDIA FELT NEED TO GROW ITS REFINING POWER

India's very first oil refinery was set up way back in 1901 in Assam's Digboi. Until 1947, the country's refining capacity stood at a measly 0.50 million metric tonnes per annum (MMTPA).

Things, however, picked up pace after India became an independent nation in 1947. The Hindustan Petroleum-run Mumbai Refinery was the first of its kind to be set up after independence, by Esso in 1954. This was followed by the setting up of refineries by other oil majors, such as Burmah Shell and Caltex in Mumbai (BPCL) and Visakhapatnam (HPCL).

According to a 1977 World Bank report, after global refined oil prices skyrocketed following the 1973 oil crisis, the Indian government, alongside stepping up exploration efforts, also stepped up refinery construction.

By 1998, India's refining capacity had reached 62 million tonnes per year. But most refineries built until this period were focused on meeting domestic consumption and were geared towards refining crude grades extracted from India and the Middle East. They were also mostly state-run enterprises.

Starting in the 1980s, Indian refineries began investing in more complex technologies, including hydrocracking, catalytic cracking and desulphurisation, enabling them to refine heavy and low-grade crude from suppliers in Russia and the Americas.

In the 1990s, after economic liberalisation opened up the refining sector, private players rushed to fill the gap. Reliance commissioned its Jamnagar refinery in July 1999, while the Essar refinery at Vadinar (now owned by Nayara Energy) followed in 2006.

By 2026, India's refining capacity had reached 248.866 million metric tonnes per year, according to the Ministry of Petroleum and Natural Gas. The country has a total of 23 refineries across India, with the Indian Oil Group being the largest operator, with nine refineries.

Furthermore, by 2001, India, a country that imports nearly 90% of its domestic crude requirements, had become a net exporter of refined petroleum.

According to data from the Observatory of Economic Complexity, India exported petroleum products worth $6.81 billion in August this year, against total exports of $43.8 billion. In 2025, total exports reached 61.5 million tonnes in the financial year 2025-26. Separately, Kpler data reported by Reuters showed that India exported 47 million tonnes of petrol, diesel and jet fuel in calendar year 2025, compared with China's 25.4 million tonnes.

As of October 2026, India's installed refining capacity of 5.6 million barrels per day makes it the fourth-largest refiner, behind the US, China and Russia, according to the Petroleum Planning and Analysis Cell. With refineries such as Jamnagar able to process a wide variety of crude grades, and India's overall exports growing, perhaps Marco Rubio is bang on target when describing India as a "refining superpower".

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