India imported 5.82 million tonnes of crude oil from Iran during the first eight months of current fiscal, the Rajya Sabha was informed today.
The imports during April-November are just over half of the 11 million tonnes target set for current fiscal.
In a written reply to a question in Rajya Sabha, the Minister of State for Petroleum and Natural Gas Panabaka Lakshmi said India imported 13.14 million tonnes of crude oil from Iran in 2012-13, down from 18.11 million tonnes in the previous year.
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.
Last month, the US extended six-month Iran sanctions waiver to India in exchange for it reducing purchases of Iranian crude oil this year.
China and South Korea were among the other nations that won the waiver, which essentially means that banks in the consuming countries will not face being cut off from the US financial system for the next six months.
In 2010-11, India had imported 18.50 million tonnes of crude oil from the Persian Gulf state, she said.
“Quantum of crude oil imported by Indian refineries from various sources is decided by them on the basis of technical, commercial and other considerations,” she said. “The oil companies finalise the term contract volume based on techno-economic and energy security point of view.”
India, which currently importing crude from over 30 countries, has not publicly said it was aiming to cut back oil imports from Iran but has unofficially asked its top importers to prune shipments from Tehran.
Iran, which was India’s second biggest supplier of crude oil after Saudi Arabia in 2010-11, slipped four places to become its seventh-largest crude oil supplier in 2012-13.
India had in 2011-12 relegated Iran to third spot with 18.1 million tonnes of imports. These were behind 32.5 million tonnes from Saudi Arabia and 24.1 million tonnes from Iraq.
Iran had in 2009-10 supplied 21.2 million tonnes which came down to 18.5 million tonnes in 2010-11 and to 18.1 million tonnes in the year after.