India and Iran has on Friday, signed an agreement where Indian will import crude oil from Persian Gulf nation in a value of rupees, known development sources said.
Despite of the United States sanctions imposed on few countries on November 5, over importing crude oil from Iran, the Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) was signed between the two countries – India and Iran, followed by seven other countries to continue import Iranian crude oil.
According to the sources, India will import crude oil from Iran with the payment in “rupee” in a UCO bank account of the National Iranian Oil Co. (NICO).
Perhaps, half of these funds would be further set aside for balancing the payment for India’s exports of goods to Iran. Under the US sanctions, India is supposed to export their medical devices, medicines and food grains to Iran.
After India had agreed to cut escrow and imports payment and it won the exemption.
Under this 180 days exemption, India is totally allowed to import 300,000 (maximum) barrels of crude oil per day from Iran. It is estimated to an average of daily import of around 560,000 barrels in 2018.
According to sources, China is the first biggest purchaser of Iranian oil followed by India being the second biggest purchaser crude oil from Iran. India has restricted its yearly purchase from 22.6 million tons (452,000 barrels per day) down to 1.25 million tons (300,000 barrels per day) in the financial year 2017-2018.
In the month November and December, India has imported about 1.25 million tons of Iranian oil through India’s two refiners – Indian Oil Corp (IOC) and Mangalore Refinery and Petrochemicals Limited (MRPL).
During 2010-2011, Iran ranked number second biggest supplier of Iranian crude oil to India. In 2013-2014, Indian bought around 11 million tons of crude oil from Iran and in 2014-2015 it bought 10.95 million tons. In the year 2015-2016, Iran exported about 12.7 million tons followed by the year 2016-2017, it exported about 27.2 million tons of crude oil.
Source » theindianwire