An interesting angle:
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ARAMCO refinery in a JV with RIL in Maharashtra never fructified thanks to Aghadi Government and then post 2022 Ukraine war dynamics changed.
What Reliance did was simple but yet it hurt Aramco: from 2022 onwards, it aggressively bought discounted Russian Urals, securing barrels that were $6–$12 cheaper than Middle Eastern supplies, and ran them through the world’s largest refining complex at Jamnagar. The economics were unbeatable. By 2025, Russian crude made up 36–50% of Reliance’s intake, compared to just 3–10% before 2022, and in the first half of 2025 alone Reliance exported over 21 million tonnes of refined fuels to Europe. These were volumes that Aramco once supplied, and as Indian cargoes docked in Europe, Saudi diesel was displaced. The Saudis lost contracts, lost market share.
Riyadh through its Public Investment Fund (PIF) and mining arm Ma’aden announced a $540 million investment in the Reko Diq project. Saudi Arabia’s Manara Minerals, a joint venture between PIF and Ma’aden, began negotiating a 15 percent stake in Reko Diq valued at nearly $1 billion. Yasir Al-Rumayyan, the governor of the PIF, chairman of Ma’aden and chairman of Saudi Aramco. Al-Rumayyan is not only the architect of Saudi mining investments but also a close ally of Donald Trump. He has been photographed alongside Trump at UFC events, golf tournaments, and political fundraisers. More importantly, the PIF invested $2 billion into Jared Kushner’s private equity fund, Affinity Partners, shortly after Trump left office in 2021. This direct infusion of Saudi capital into Kushner’s ventures cemented a deep financial and political alignment between the Trump family and Riyadh.
In 2023, the Saudis injected $2 billion into Pakistan’s central bank, enabling Islamabad to unlock an IMF bailout, and promised further investments in projects like the Reko Diq mine. Munir speaking about India’s refining of Russian crude, the word of putting Jamnagar refinery as a target isn’t organic. Even America’s Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent targeted RIL for Arbitrage over Russian Oi. That was the Wahabi Oil in Washington DC money speaking ! The Wahhabi oil lobby knows how to work the levers of Washington, and the pressure campaign against India’s Russian crude play is being dressed up as strategic necessity for both Aramco’s recovery and America’s desire to protect the dollar system.
Saudi wants the European share back; the Americans want US & Venezuelan Oil to replace Russian crude basket of India. Russia crude as of date nearly makes up 40-50% of India’s Crude Basket. It is Russian crude the saved India from energy shock during the middle east conflict. India & Russia have both defied US sanctions and rather settling Oil trade bi-laterally through Vostro Accounts mechanism.
Pakistan, predictably, is being recycled as a proxy in this pressure game by both America & Saudi Arabia. Pakistan’s bid to relevance happened after Saudi Arabia started funding and rehabilitating it since 2022-23. And now it has a mutual defence pact with KSA & Turkey which has blessings of United States.
