May continue buying Iran oil, India says amid US pressure
IOCL, MRPL contract for Iran crude in Nov
NEW DELHI: India will continue its energy imports from Iran even in the wake of the US government’s November 4 deadline, petroleum minister Dharmendra Pradhan hinted on Monday.
Two of India’s state-owned companies have contracted for Iranian crude for November, Pradhan said at an event here, and non-committally said that one does not know whether or not the sanctions have been waived off. State refiners Indian Oil Corporation Ltd (IOCL) and Mangalore Refinery and Petrochemicals Ltd (MRPL) have contracted 1.25 million tonne of Iranian oil for import in November.
Pradhan’s statement assumes importance given that India, the world’s third-largest oil importer, is a major importer of Iranian oil. Of the 220.4 million metric tonne (million MT) of crude oil imported by India in 2017-18, about 9.4% was from Iran.
President Donald Trump pulled the US out of a historic 2015 accord with energy-rich Iran, which was inked to curb the Islamic Republic’s nuclear programme in return for ending sanctions.
However, the US has not taken any decision on sanctioning India for importing oil from Iran and investing in the Chabahar port.
NEW DELHI: India will continue its energy imports from Iran even in the wake of the US government’s November 4 deadline, petroleum minister Dharmendra Pradhan hinted on Monday.
Two of India’s state-owned companies have contracted for Iranian crude for November, Pradhan said at The Energy Forum here and non-committally said one does not know whether or not the sanctions have been waived off,
State refiners Indian Oil Corp. Ltd (IOCL) and Mangalore Refinery and Petrochemicals Ltd (MRPL) have contracted 1.25 million tonnes of Iranian oil for import in November.
Pradhan’s statement assumes importance given that India, the world’s third-largest oil importer is a major importer of Iranian oil. Of the 220.4 million metric tonnes (million MT) of crude oil imported by India in 2017-18, about 9.4%, was from Iran.
President Donald Trump pulled the US out of a historic 2015 accord with energy-rich Iran, which was inked to curb the Islamic Republic’s nuclear programme in return for ending sanctions. However, according to Alice G Wells, principal deputy assistant secretary of state for south and central Asia, the US has not taken any decision on sanctioning India for importing oil from Iran and investing in the Chabahar port.
Wells, who was in New Delhi earlier this month as part of the delegation accompanying US secretary of state Mike Pompeo for the India-US “2+2” dialogue, said there was no “blanket waiver or country-specific waiver” from US sanctions on trading with or investing in Iran or buying arms from Russia. She said the sanctions that come into force on 4 November were designed to bring Tehran to book and not penalize India, which meets 83% of its crude oil requirements from outside.
Pradhan said a new world order is being established. “Isn’t this a recognition of India’s leadership?” he asked.
Increasing tensions between the US and Venezuela, the US demanding an end to all imports of Iranian oil by early November and the rupee’s being Asia’s worst performing currency of the year have compounded the situation and put India in a difficult spot. Meanwhile, the domestic currency slumped by 30 paise to finish at a fresh lifetime low of 74.06 against the US dollar on Monday amid strengthening of the greenback and steady capital outflows.
With US sanctions on Iran looming, Moody’s Investors Service had estimated a decline of around $500 million in earnings for IOCL and other Indian state-owned refiners such as Bharat Petroleum Corp. Ltd (BPCL) and Hindustan Petroleum Corp. Ltd (HPCL) combined, on account of substituting crude oil imports from the Persian Gulf country.
India, which is reeling under the impact of high oil prices, has also reminded Saudi Arabia of the Organization of the Petroleum Exporting Countries’ (Opec) promise of increasing production by an additional one million barrels per day, said Pradhan.