Trump unveils US oil refinery plan with Reliance

US President Donald Trump on Tuesday said Indian energy giant Reliance Industries was supporting a deal to build the first major new oil refinery in the United States in nearly 50 years.

Trump made the announcement on his Truth Social platform, saying the company America First Refining would construct the facility at the Port of Brownsville in Texas.

Describing it as a major investment in the country’s energy sector, Trump called the project a historic $300 billion deal and said it would be the largest in US history. However, he did not provide further details about the structure of the investment.

Trump also thanked India and Reliance Industries for their role in the project, referring to the company as the country’s largest privately held energy firm, though he did not specify the extent of its financial involvement.

Reliance Industries is India’s biggest privately owned conglomerate and operates the Jamnagar refinery complex, which is the largest oil refinery in the world.

According to the America First Refining website, the company is a project of Element Fuels. Element Fuels first announced plans in 2024 to build a refinery in Brownsville with an estimated cost of between $3 billion and $4 billion.

The proposed refinery would be the first built along the US Gulf of Mexico since the 1970s and is designed to process 100 percent American shale oil, the company said.