India hopes to resolve a payment dispute for oil imports from Iran by February within the limits of any UN sanctions, Foreign Secretary Nirupama Rao said on Friday.
India's central bank said in December payments to Iran could no longer be done through a long-standing clearinghouse system run by regional central banks, prompting fears of stoppage of crude imports from Iran, Reuters reported.
Iran sends tankers to India's west coast
Three crude oil tankers from Iran, OPEC's second-biggest oil producer, sailed for India's west coast in January while the nations discussed ways to resolve a gridlock over payments for the fuel.
The Darab, owned by National Iranian Tanker Co., was headed this week to the western Indian port of Vadinar, where state-run Indian Oil Corp., the nation's biggest refiner, and Essar Oil Ltd. take deliveries of crude.
The Darab, with the capacity to carry 345,000 metric tons, departed from Kharg Island, Iran's main crude-export terminal, Bloomberg data show.
Two ships, the Remi and Fair Spirit, with a combined cargo of 180,000 tons, are scheduled to reach Mangalore in western India.
MRPL, a unit of India's biggest energy explorer Oil & Natural Gas Corp., buys about 7 million tons of crude from Iran every year, making it the South Asian nation's biggest buyer of oil from the Persian Gulf state, Managing Director UK Basu said Dec. 30.
Oil Secretary S. Sundareshan said on Dec. 30 that India imports about 21 million tons of crude from Iran annually. The Middle East nation is India's biggest supplier after Saudi Arabia, Oil Minister Murli Deora said in parliament April 15.
Iran pumped 3.7 million barrels a day in December, making it the second-largest producer in OPEC, according to a Bloomberg survey. The other countries in the 12-member group are Algeria, Angola, Ecuador, Iraq, Kuwait, Libya, Nigeria, Qatar, Saudi Arabia, United Arab Emirates and Venezuela.