New Delhi: Concerns raised by the opposition and strategic experts – in the wake of the US telling India where it can and can’t buy oil from – about the effectiveness and independence of the Narendra Modi government’s foreign policy will likely be amplified by Bloomberg’s report that it was “intensive engagement by the Reliance leadership which helped secure the 30-day Russian oil purchase waiver” from US sanctions for India “and made progress on deals involving Venezuelan interests.” The 30-day so-called “waiver” given to India by the US administration to buy Russian crude follows the controversial executive order issued by US President Donald Trump prohibiting India from purchasing oil from Russia. India has been the beneficiary of discounted crude oil from Russia ever since the war on Ukraine lowered the price of Russian oil and India stepped in to buy it. The Modi government’s willingness to agree to US conditions and circumscribe its energy choices has been severely criticised in India, leading to sharp exchanges between the opposition and the ruling party centring around slogans like “Narender-surrender” and “compromised PM”. Last week, the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) claimed the US ‘waiver’ was a ‘win’ for Modi’s energy diplomacy but Bloomberg’s sources say it was Reliance’s commercial exertions which proved decisive. This week came confirmation that Indian companies which had stopped the purchase of Russian oil following Trump’s order had now bought 30 million barrels of Russian oil. Reliance and Indian Oil Corporation (IOC) were among those who “snapped up all unsold cargoes of Russian crude in the spot market,” The Economic Times reported. The first public indication of Reliance’s ‘autonomous foreign policy’ came this week when President Trump announced the startling news of a proposed Reliance-funded $300 billion refinery to be built in Texas. “THIS IS A HISTORIC $300 BILLION DOLLAR DEAL — THE BIGGEST IN U.S. HISTORY, A MASSIVE WIN for American Workers, Energy, and the GREAT People of South Texas! Thank you to our partners in India, and their largest privately held Energy Company, Reliance, for this tremendous Investment,” wrote Trump.In the face of the severe energy crisis kicked off by the US-Israeli war on Iran, Trump is keen to reassure his political base that he is working to not only secure adequate energy for domestic consumers but also place the US in control of the world’s energy resources.Reliance Industries, or the many TV news channels owned by India’s biggest industrialist, have not made any statement on the Texas refinery plan so far. The government of India too remains mum.Reliance Industries’ net worth is said to be in the range of $118 billion, raising questions about this purported $300 billion investment. Their Jamnagar refinery, one of the most complex in the world, can handle 1.4 million barrels per day but cost $6 billion to establish, which raises questions about why Trump mentioned such a large figure for what will be a much smaller refinery in Texas. Besides this, business analysts are asking for more details like, “what would be the rationale for investing in Texas as opposed to any other part of the world, including expanding in India ? How long has this specific project been in discussion or reckoning since previous investments in the US are more in the area of technology, renewables etc?” According to a Dainik Bhaskar report on March 12, Mukesh Ambani’s son, Anant Ambani, who took over as the executive director of Reliance Industries last year, has been working to achieve this deal “for the past few months”. The report said that the founding ceremony for the refinery will take place in the second half of this year.The refinery in Texas, as per Dainik Bhaskar, is set to have a capacity of 160,000 barrels per day. The last large refinery in the US was built in Louisiana in 1977. The report also claimed that the actual construction cost of the refinery would be $4-5 billion.Meanwhile, Businessline reported that Reliance’s involvement in the apparent deal was “still in the works” and the final agreement is yet to be signed.The Businessline report also says that Reliance is not the only partner in the US project and that there are other companies involved.Reliance role in VenezuelaThere has been talk of Reliance in the past as having been involved in the attempt by Trump to control Venezuelan oil after abducting President Nicolas Maduro and his wife.Indeed, soon after the US abducted the Maduros and took control of oil exports in the Latin American country, Reliance secured a licence to refine Venezuelan crude last month.The Hindu confirmed in February that the US had permitted the sale of Venezuelan oil through traders, but a general license “gave authorisation to purchase of oil directly from an entity that has already extracted it from below ground or is in possession of it.”Reliance was a regular purchaser of Venezuelan crude “before the US slapped sanctions on Mr. Maduro’s regime in 2019-20. It bought oil when the US introduced a temporary sanctions relief in 2024”, the newspaper added. Reliance’s Jamnagar (Gujarat) based oil and petrochemical refinery remains central to the business empire of India’s biggest billionaire, by far one of its two richest men.