In a pickle in Jamnagar

Dawn · 27/10/2026، 4:54:34 AM

THE massive Reliance refinery in Jamnagar abutting the Arabian Sea from its perch in Gujarat was inaugurated in December 1999. There may be absolutely no connection between the refinery’s birthday and India’s nuclear tests of May 1998. But it’s difficult also to ignore the high stakes involved in its presence facing Pakistan, which too became a nuclear power that year. History shows a pattern of power play associated with such critical and strategic assets. It was on the eve of World War I that Churchill decided that the Royal Navy should switch to oil and away from Welsh coal to make the fleet faster and more efficient. But with no oil of its own, Britain turned to the Abadan refinery, which would eventually become the world’s largest such facility, except that it was needlessly close to the border with Iraq. The refinery was at the heart of the 1953 coup against Mohammad Mossadegh when the elected prime minister nationalised the oil industry. It was the first scalp for Saddam Hussein in the long war he launched against Iran in 1980. The Jamnagar refinery is said to be the world’s largest facility to process the most difficult of crude oils, including hugely discounted volumes imported from cash-strapped Venezuela. Given its proximity to Pakistan, the facility has figured in comments by analysts and voluble generals alike as a potential target, a veritable sitting duck. The Ambani family on its part has played an active role in seeking to improve ties with Pakistan. They reportedly played a role in pleading through a former US president close to the family in pressing Gen Pervez Musharraf to allow Nawaz Sharif to be able to leave Pakistan to live in exile. The refinery has also featured as a potential bridge between the implacable rivals, at one point offering to transport refined products to Pakistan through the Punjab border. Given the fact that India has only suspended the war it launched against Pakistan under the sobriquet of Operation Sindoor and not brought