India’s oil import from Iran goes down by more than half in April

Currently, India is scheduled to get two very large crude oil consignments carrying tanker arrival data — one at Paradip in Odisha and Kochi in Kerala, a report by Reuters said. The orders for the two consignments were placed in April.

India's overall oil import between Jan-Apr fell by 45%

India's overall oil import from Iran between January and April fell by almost 45 percent to settle at 3,04,500 barrels per day (bpd) compared with 5,52,000 bpd a year ago, Reuters said. Iran shipped about 2,77,600 bpd of oil in April to India, which is its second-biggest buyer of crude oil after China. The figure for April marked a 31.5 percent dip from the previous month, preliminary tanker arrival data showed.

Only oil PSUs were buying Iranian oil

Since sanctions took effect in November last year, only state-run oil marketing companies (OMCs) like Indian Oil Corporation, Bharat Petroleum Corporation, Hindustan Petroleum and Mangalore Refinery and Petrochemicals were buying Iranian oil.

India was allowed to buy 300,000 bpd of oil by US

After the sanctions took effect, the US had granted a six-month waiver eight nations, including India, during which they were allowed to import some Iranian crude. India was allowed to buy 3,00,000 bpd of oil between November and April. However, the actual volume varied from month to month as foreign shipping services backed out of Iranian deals under pressure from the US.

In April, the US asked these eight nations to stop the purchase of Iranian oil or face sanctions.