New Delhi: Even as India is under pressure from US to cut supplies from Iran, the Islamic nation became the second largest supplier of crude oil to country's public sector firms during the first three months of current fiscal, said Oil Minister Dharmendra Pradhan on Monday.
Iran piped Saudi Arabia to become the second largest supplier of crude oil as Indian firms took advantage of steeper discounts offered by Tehran.
Indian PSUs bought 5.67 million tonnes of crude oil from the Persian Gulf nation during April-June, higher than imports from Saudi Arabia. Imports from Iran were only second to Iraq. India shipped in 7.27 million tonnes of oil from Iraq, while shipments from Saudi Arabia totalled 5.22 million tonnes.
State refiners, accounting for about 60 percent of India’s 5 million bpd refining capacity, had curbed imports from Iran last year in protest against Tehran’s move to grant development rights for the giant Farzad B gas field to other parties.
These companies shipped in 9.8 million tonnes of Iranian oil in 2017-18, about a quarter less than a year ago
State firms that buy oil from Iran include MRPL, Indian Oil and HPCL.
India and other major buyers of Iranian oil are under pressure to cut imports from the country after Washington in May withdrew from a 2005 nuclear deal with Tehran and decided to reimpose sanctions on the Opec member.
