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