Reliance Industries Ltd has received a general licence from the US government allowing the Mukesh Ambani-led behemoth to directly purchase Venezuelan oil.
The company, which operates the world’s largest single-site refinery in Gujarat’s Jamnagar, applied for the permit last month and received the green signal from the US Treasury Department a few days ago.
RIL did not comment on the development.
The move comes days after India and the United States reached a trade deal whereby the US lifted a 25 per cent tariff on Indian merchandise export on the condition that New Delhi stops buying Russian oil.
While announcing the deal on social media on February 2, President Trump had announced India would buy oil from the US and ‘potentially Venezuela’.
The US — which has stepped up involvement in Venezuela’s oil sector after capturing the country’s president Nicolas Maduro last month — has been considering general licences to permit purchases, trading and investment. Reliance is the first Indian refiner to receive clearance in the current push.
The Trump administration has exhorted US petroleum giants to expand their presence in the Latin American country.
While RIL has received a licence to purchase directly, the India government has also asked public sector oil refiners to consider buying more US and Venezuelan crude.
Refiners have been urged to prioritise US grades when they seek oil from the spot market via tenders, refinery executives told Bloomberg.
Venezuela is unlikely to produce large volumes of crude anytime soon, but even limited supplies provide a fallback option for India’s largest refiner.
India has historically processed a significant volume of Venezuelan crude, which is heavy in nature. Major domestic refiners such as Vadinar (Nayara), IOC, HEML and MRPL, apart from RIL, have the capacity to process the high-viscosity, sour oil, which is difficult to extract and refine without diluent.
Reliance has historically been an important consumer of Venezuela’s crude, having struck a term deal to secure as much as 400,000 barrels a day from Petroleos de Venezuela SA in 2012.
The Indian refining giant took about 25 per cent of Venezuela’s exports in 2019, before its term deal got suspended in 2019 due to US sanctions. It last received a general licence in 2024 and took crude until it expired last year, and was not renewed.
Buying Venezuelan oil will allow Reliance to optimise its refining margins because these barrels can be upgraded into higher-value products like diesel, kerosene and LPG that fetch strong demand in India and export markets, industry experts said.
Access to cheaper Venezuelan heavy crude also supports RIL’s better petrochemical margins when converted into polymers and speciality chemicals.
