The stock of Reliance Industries Ltd. was trading mixed after US President Donald Trump highlighted the role of India’s largest company to build an upcoming oil refinery in Brownsville, Texas.
Reliance Industries’ share price rose as much as 1.78% to ₹1,434.00 apiece on the National Stock Exchange but soon gave up all the gains to trade up to 0.54% lower. That, even as the benchmark Nifty fell up to 0.50%.
“I am proud to announce that America First Refining is opening the FIRST new US Oil Refinery in 50 YEARS in Brownsville, Texas,” Trump said Tuesday in a post on Truth Social.
Reliance Industries identified only as a “global supermajor” in the America First statement but named by Trump in a post on Truth Social provided a “9-figure investment” at a “10-figure valuation”. The company, led by Asia’s richest man Mukesh Ambani, has also signed “a binding 20-year offtake term sheet” with America First, meaning the company will buy products the refinery produces.
America First, which plans to break ground in the second quarter of 2026, would be a 168,000 barrel-per-day oil refinery at Brownsville port along the US-Mexico border. When operational, it would offset $300 billion in the US trade deficit.
Many US Gulf Coast refineries are unable to process light, sweet crude oil from fracking shale fields because they were configured to run lower-cost heavy, sour crude, which is higher density and contains more sulphur.
Reliance Industries, on the flipside, can process almost any type of oil at Jamnagar — the world’s largest refining complex that processes 1.4-1.6 million barrels per day. Most recently, the company secured a US licence for Venezuelan oil, which perfectly matches the refinery’s heavy crude configuration.
