Like anywhere in the world, in the US too, petrol moves people while diesel moves goods. Trucks—the mainstay mover of goods and cargo in the US—use diesel. And that is in severe shortage now because refineries in war-ravaged swaths across Russia-Ukraine and West Asia have been badly damaged in the ongoing conflicts, including 20 major refineries in West Asia.
That is what has made the world sit up and take notice of India’s growing refining capabilities.
The focus is easily on Gujarat’s Jamnagar—owned by the Ambanis—touted to be the world’s biggest refinery. Its very unique feature, something which even the Americans don’t have, is that Jamnagar can refine all sorts of crude. From the Russian medium sour ‘Ural crude’ to the heavy and sour ‘Venezuelan crude’ to the Saudi ‘sweet’. It makes the Jamnagar refinery uniquely ‘source-agnostic’.
And therefore Jamnagar is where Marco Rubio, US Secretary of State and US’ top diplomat, will spend a night on October 21 before meeting top corporate honchos Gautam Adani and N. Chandrasekaran of the Tata Group on October 22. But before that, he has a dinner date with Mukesh Ambani in Mumbai. After having given New Delhi a miss!
That Rubio chose to bypass New Delhi and instead chose India’s financial capital Mumbai and Jamnagar in Gujarat for his official parleys has become a big talking point. Mumbai is where India’s money lies, and Jamnagar has the numero uno refinery.
Rubio’s visit is replete with implications.
One, the US wants to directly engage with the top Indian corporate honchos. Notably, the combined market capitalisation of the listed entities of just these three corporate entities—the Ambanis, Adanis and Tata—makes up about 15 per cent of the total value of listed companies in the BSE. The Americans are eyeing big-ticket investment by India’s corporates in their country that is witnessing a downturn in employment opportunities amid diesel-related inflation which has raised the cost of living.
A case in point is the planned $5 billion refinery to be set up by the Ambanis in Brownsville, Texas. A finalised deal during this visit will immensely help President Donald Trump’s Republican Party in the mid-term polls just a few days away.
Two, the India-US trade deal is running into problems because of vociferous opposition by India’s farm sector and the peasantry. A win-win direct engagement with India’s corporate sector will create a rival bloc within India to the up-in-arms Indian farm sector. It would make a resolution of the current trade deal impasse relatively easier.
