Trump announces first US refinery to be built in 50 years

US President Donald Trump announced this week that America First Refining would build the US’ first new oil refinery in 50 years, with India’s Reliance Industries Ltd (RIL) providing financial backing.

The announcement came as the Trump administration sought to assuage concerns about rising oil prices as a result of the conflict in Iran and the disruption to energy trade flows through the Strait of Hormuz. The crisis threatens to keep pushing up oil prices if it continues, and the Trump administration is reported to be weighing up options for lowering both crude and gasoline prices, according to media including Bloomberg.

The new refinery is set to be built in the Port of Brownsville, Texas. Bloomberg noted that it was previously being developed by Element Fuels, which said in 2024 that it had completed site preparation and had received the necessary permits to build a facility with the capacity to process about 160,000 barrels per day of oil. The Element Fuels website now redirects to the website for America First Refining, whose name is a reference to Trump’s ‘America First’ agenda.

In a March 10 announcement, America First Refining said it had received a nine-figure investment from a company it described only as a “global supermajor at a 10-figure valuation”. It went on to add that it had signed a binding 20-year offtake term sheet with the same global company that secured commitments to purchase, process and distribute US-produced energy. This energy would be exclusively sourced from US shale, the company continued. America First Refining said it would officially break ground on the new refinery in the second quarter of 2026.

America First Refining did not mention RIL by name, but Trump mentioned the company in his announcement on his TruthSocial social media platform. Thanking RIL for its “tremendous investment”, Trump went on to claim the refinery would be “the cleanest refinery in the world”, without specifying how this would be achieved.

RIL has not publicly commented on the news.

If the project goes ahead in line with what has been announced, it is worth noting that it will be unusual for the US Gulf Coast, where most other refineries are geared towards the processing of heavy crude grades. By contract, crude produced from shale formations is typically light oil.

"This is one of the most important energy infrastructure projects in America today," stated America First Refining’s President, Trey Griggs. "The United States has a surplus of light shale oil but a shortage of refining capacity designed to process it.”