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US curbs shave 60% off India's February oil imports from Iran

New Delhi: India's oil imports from Iran in February plunged by over 60 per cent from a year ago to about 260,000 barrels per day (bpd) as New Delhi cuts imports under a sanctions waiver deal with Washington, data compiled by Reuters showed.

The United States introduced sanctions aimed at crippling Iran's oil revenue-dependent economy in November but gave a six-month waiver to eight nations, including India, which allowed them to import some Iranian oil.

India has been allowed by Washington to continue to buy about 300,000 bpd oil till early May.

India's February imports from Iran were about 4 per cent lower than January's purchases, the data showed.

Iran was the eighth biggest oil supplier to India in February compared with seventh in January, and slipped from third position it held a year ago, the data showed.

Last month Tehran's share in India's overall oil imports declined to about 5 per cent from about 14 per cent a year earlier, the data showed.

In the first 11 months of this fiscal year that began in April, India's oil imports from Iran rose by 5.6 per cent to 486,400 bpd as refiners boosted purchases ahead of the U.S. sanctions drawn by discounts offered by Tehran, the data showed.

Iran was hoping to sell more than 500,000 bpd of oil to India in 2018/19, its oil minister Bijan Zanganeh said last year, and had offered almost free shipping and an extended credit period to boost sales to the country.

Indian refiners Hindustan Petroleum Corp and Bharat Petroleum Corp, Mangalore Refinery and Petroleum Corp and Indian Oil Corp together lifted 1.25 million tonnes or 9 million barrels of Iranian oil in February.

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