The refinery was commissioned on 14 July 1999 with an initial installed capacity of 668,000 barrels per day (106,200 m3/d).

[3] On 25 December 2001, Reliance Petroleum Limited (RPL) announced the commissioning of its refinery into a Special Economic Zone in Jamnagar district of Gujarat, India.

The completion of the RPL refinery has enabled Jamnagar to emerge as a 'Refinery land', housing the world's largest refining complex with an aggregate refining capacity of 1.24 million barrels (197,000 m3) of oil per day, more than any other single location in the world.

RPL contracted several companies having expertise in engineering construction and refining like Bechtel, UOP LLC and Foster Wheeler (multinational corporation) amongst others.

[8] Following sanctions imposed on Russia by mainly Western countries, but not by India, the Jamnagar refinery was one of the main refiners exporting oil products made from Russian oil to sanctioning nations.