The Petroleum Minister, Mr S. Jaipal Reddy, said that crude oil supplies from Iran are on schedule, global politics notwithstanding.
“As of now no supply bottlenecks have been faced…Iran is eager to supply crude oil to us,” he told newspersons at the sidelines of the 3rd India-Africa Hydrocarbons Conference, here.
Iran is India's second-biggest crude oil supplier after Saudi Arabia, meeting about 12 per cent of India's needs.
On the uncertainty over the mode of payment for the crude oil imports from Iran, the Minister said, “the payment issue has been by and large settled.”
India and Iran have been working out a suitable payment mechanism for Iranian oil. Uncertainties over the supplies from Iran emerged when last December, the Reserve Bank of India scrapped payments to Iran using the long-standing clearing house system run by Asian central banks.
According to data available in 2010-11, Indian refiners imported 163.594 million tonne, with Saudi Arabia being the main supplier. In April-October 2011-12, refiners have imported 96.808 million tonne of crude oil.