Amid US’s talks of sanctions on buyers to Iranian oil India has decided to purchase 9 million barrels of oil in November.
US sanctions are to take into effect on November 4th. The sanctions are targeting Iran’s involvement in conflicts in Syria and Iraq and bring Tehran to the negotiating table over its ballistic missile programme.
According to sources, Indian Oil Corp will lift 6 million barrels of oil while Mangalore Refinery and Petrochemicals Ltd will lift 3 million barrels.
However, the oil companies are yet to reveal these details.
This month Indian oil refiners had purchased 10 million barrels of oil in October.
In the previous round of sanctions, India continued to buy Iranian oil although it had to cut purchases significantly to protect its wider exposure to the US financial system.
The foreign minister said in May it abides only by sanctions imposed by the United Nations and not those imposed by any other country.
With the European Union considering the creation of a “special purpose vehicle” before November to facilitate trade with Iran, India hopes to find a way to settle payments to Tehran.
“Previously there was no European channel. This time Europe is not working with the US, so we intend to evolve a mechanism,” a source said.
Meanwhile, India & Iran are building a port called the Chabahar in the latter country which is expected to function by 2019.
“It is still early to say how India will settle its trade with Iran,” another source said, adding that India could consider paying Iran for crude with the rupee currency.
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