NEW DELHI: India could buy more crude from Iran in the next four months and intends to increase purchases further in the next fiscal year, its top oil bureaucrat said, after a deal last weekend eased some sanctions on the Opec member.
India is the first of Tehran’s four main buyers to say it is looking to buy more oil from Iran after the agreement in Geneva. Although the agreement doesn’t allow Iran to boost its oil sales for six months, India has room to increase its imports after they tumbled around 40 percent this year to below even what was permitted by sanctions.
India intends to buy up to an average 220,000 barrels per day (b/d) of oil from Iran in the year ending March 31, Oil Secretary Vivek Rae said. That’s consistent with a goal of cutting India’s Iran oil shipments 15 percent this year to win waivers on US sanctions.
But India’s April-October imports are running at less than 80 percent of that level, at about 170,000 b/d, meaning India could raise its imports between December and March and still hit the target. Hindustan Petroleum Corp Ltd has already said it is ready to look at buying more Iranian oil now that some of the constraints on refinery insurance have been lifted. Reuters
