India’s oil imports from Iran top 500,000 barrels per day in 2016-2017

NEW DELHI: India’s Iran oil imports jumped to a record high in 2016/17 topping half-a-million barrels per day (bpd) as refiners boosted purchases after lifting of some Western sanctions against Tehran last year.

India, Iran’s biggest oil buyer after China, was among a handful of countries that continued to deal with Tehran despite Western sanctions over its nuclear programme. Refiners shipped in about 541,000 bpd of Iranian oil in the fiscal year to March, a growth of about 115 per cent over the previous year, ship tracking data obtained from sources and data compiled by Thomson Reuters Oil Research & Forecasts showed.

Iran was India’s second biggest oil supplier — a position now belonging to Iraq — before economic sanctions aimed at Iran’s nuclear programme hampered its trade relations, forcing the South Asian nation to tap alternative suppliers.

Purchases by Indian refiners, including Reliance Industries that resumed imports last year after a multi-year lay-off, helped Iran regain some of the lost market share.

Imports from Iran could ease in this fiscal year as state-refiners have agreed to cut their annual imports deal with Iran by a fifth to put pressure on Tehran to award the Farzad B gas field to an Indian consortium.

Iran, in turn has decided to cut the credit period on oil sales to 60 days from 90 days and cut freight discounts from 80 per cent to 60 per cent.

India imported 18.7 per cent less oil from Iran in March at about 526,000 bpd oil compared to the previous month, data showed. — Reuters