Months before United States President Donald Trump announced Reliance Group’s investment in a Texas oil refinery, the group spent $1.49 million (Rs 13 crore) on lobbying the White House and other US government departments on energy and trade policies, “sanctions” and “tariffs affecting oil”, records filed with the US Senate show.
More than half the amount – $760,000 – was spent between October 1 and December 31, 2025.
On March 11, Trump announced that Reliance Group would back a new oil refinery at the Port of Brownsville, Texas, to be built by America First Refining. Trump called it the first American refinery in 50 years and pegged the deal at a staggering $300 billion (Rs 27.7 lakh crore).
Reliance is yet to comment on the deal.
In a statement, America First Refining said that in February, it had received a “9-figure investment from a global supermajor at a 10-figure valuation”. Without identifying the global firm, it added that it had signed a binding “offtake term sheet” with the firm to purchase, process, and distribute energy from American shale oil.
Scroll sent questions to the Reliance Group about the deal and its spend on lobbying in the US. No response has been received by the time of publication.
In 2025, the Mukesh Ambani-led conglomerate had found itself in the crosshairs of the Trump administration over Russian oil imports. US Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent had said that some of India’s richest families were profiteering from New Delhi buying and reselling cheap Russian oil.
In August, the Trump administration hiked tariffs on Indian goods from 25% to 50% over the oil imports. By December, the Reliance group had to cut down its purchase of Russian oil. In February 2026, Trump waived the additional 25% tariff.
Four lobbying firms
Lobbying to influence government policy is a legal activity in the US. It is done through specialised firms.
In addition to three lobbying firms already representing it, in 2025, Reliance hired a new firm, Checkmate Government Relations. The North Carolina-based firm has old ties with the Trump administration. One of its lobbyists, Fritz Vaughan, was a treasury official in the first Trump administration.
For $330,000, Checkmate Government Relations was tasked with discussing “issues regarding international energy policy” with the US State Department and the intelligence-focused National Security Agency.
Reliance spent another $480,000 through Ballard Partners for lobbying the Department of Commerce and the State Department – which manages American foreign policy – on the same issues.
The group gave $80,000 to AND Partners to lobby on its behalf with the US Senate on diesel swaps, an arrangement where a company trades with a sanctioned country without exchanging money.
The highest spending – $600,000 – however, was directed towards discussions on “US trade policies, sanctions, and tariffs affecting oil” with the White House, US Senate, House of Representatives, Department of Commerce, Treasury Department and the Department of Energy. This was done via a lobbying firm called Eversheds Sutherland.
In addition to Reliance, records show that Element Fuels Holdings LLC, the firm that operates America First Refining, spent $450,000 (Rs 4 crore) in 2025 to lobby with Trump’s office over the “production of hydrogen technology”. For this, it engaged Washington-based Continental Strategy LLC, which is run by Carlos Trujillo, an official who served in the first Trump administration. This was its highest-ever spending on lobbying.
A new record
Reliance has lobbied US governments in the past, but never on this scale. In 2009 and 2010, it spent Rs $760,000 (Rs 3.7 crore) each year on “strategic counsel on issues related to trade”.
In 2020 and 2021, it spent $1.2 million (Rs 9 crore) each year to lobby the State Department and the US Senate over sanctions. According to Bloomberg, the group was trying to get the US to loosen its sanctions on oil from Venezuela.
Chevron, an American multinational pushing the same issue, had spent $6.8 million in lobbying in 2021, records show.
Apart from Reliance, 2025 saw the Adani Group spend $160,000 to lobby the US State department, Department of Homeland Security, and the House of Representatives over “US-India trade relationship”, “green energy” and “related criminal and civil matters”. In 2024, a US court had indicted the group for bribing Indian officials to convince them into buying electricity from its units.
The same year, records show that the Tata Group spent $920,000 on lobbying the US Senate and the House of Representatives over “education, innovation, and research programs and federal funding for STEM education”. In 2025, Tata Consultancy Services was among the Indian information technology firms that faced headwinds in the US as the Trump administration threatened to charge businesses a steep fee for H1-B visas, three-fourths of which are secured by Indians.