Iran’s major Asian clients — China, India, Japan and South Korea — have all cut imports heavily to secure waivers and continued access to the U.S. financial system.
According to the reprt, New Delhi, Tehran’s top oil client after China, has reduced Iran’s role as a supplier, so that it contributed about 7.4 per cent of all imports in the period from last April to January, compared to 10.7 per cent a year earlier.
India is now paying Iran only in rupees for its oil after it lost another payment route in euros through Turkey’s Halkbank after the United States toughened sanctions from Feb. 6, sources at domestic refiners said.
India plans to reduce imports from Iran by another 10 to 15 per cent in the next contract year starting April 1, and more if Tehran does not lower prices to help cover costs resulting from Western sanctions, sources have said.
To replace lost Iranian volumes, India’s imports of oil from Latin America have more than doubled in the period from last April to January, with the region accounting for about 17 per cent of overall imports, up from about 9 per cent a year ago.