Indian express – Owing to the US and European sanctions that have made it difficult to ship oil from Iran, India may slash crude oil import from Iran by 27% this fiscal.
In the fiscal ending March 31, India may just import about 13 million tonne of crude oil from Iran as against 18.1 million tonne shipped in the 2011-12 fiscal. The US and the EU have shut down the use of their financial systems for Iranian crude trade and Washington recently imposed more treasury sanctions on trade with Iran, making imports from the Islamic nation even more difficult,in the hope of starving Tehran of cash that would force it to give up its nuclear programme.
According to sources, in the current fiscal Iran has slipped four places to become India’s seventh-largest crude oil supplier. Iran which was India’s second biggest supplier of crude oil after Saudi Arabia in 2010-11 supplied 9.7 million tonne during the April-December period of the current fiscal.
Sources said Iran had in 2009-10 supplied 21.2 million tonne which came down to 18.5 million tonne in 2010-11 and to 18.1 million tonne in the year after. It may end the fiscal with import of 13 million tonne in current fiscal they said.
During the current fiscal Iranian supplies made up for 7.2% of the India’s oil imports down from 10.5% in the previous fiscal 2011-12.
India has been since last year cutting import of crude oil from Iran after the US and European nations sanctions made shipments and payments difficult. India which relies on import for 79 per cent of its oil needs bought a total of 134 million tonne crude in April to December this fiscal. Last year it had imported 171.7 million tonne of crude oil, up from 163.4 million tonne in 2010-11 and 159.2 million tonne of 2009-10.
