India has begun paying Iran for oil in rupees, a senior bank official said the first such payments since the United States imposed new sanctions against Tehran in November.

Iran Press / Asia: “Today we received a good amount from some oil companies,” Charan Singh, executive director at state-owned UCO Bank told Reuters. He did not disclose the names of refiners or how much had been deposited.

An industry source said India’s top refiner Indian Oil Corp and Mangalore Refinery & Petrochemicals have made payments for Iranian oil imports. Neither was immediately available for comment.

Iran is devising payment mechanisms including barter with trading partners like India, China and Russia following a delay in the setting up of a European Union-led special purpose vehicle to facilitate trade with Tehran, its foreign minister Mohammad Javad Zarif, said earlier on Tuesday.

 

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India, Iran’s second biggest oil customer after China, has been granted a sanctions waiver to import some 300,000 barrels per day of Iranian oil for 180 days, starting from Nov. 5.

India and Iran agreed to use a 50% rupee-based payment and 50% export commodities mechanism in their trade.

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India pays crude bill to Iran in rupee

India's total demand for crude oil is 4.6 million barrel a day, which ranks the country as the third largest consumer of crude oil after the United States and China. India receives 80 percent of its oil needs from Iran.

Also Turkey has resumed imports of Iranian crude oil after a one-month hiatus in November when US sanctions on Iran were reimposed, trading and shipping sources said.

Turkey used to import about 200,000 bpd of Iranian crude before Washington announced last year that it would pull out of the 2015 Iran nuclear deal and reimpose sanctions.

The US, following withdrawal from the Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action (JCPOA) in May 2018, announced its' intention to reduce Iran's oil exports to zero.

But later the Trump administration was forced to grant waivers to eight countries including India to continue purchasing Iran’s crude oil aimed at preventing an oil price hike.   101/ 211 / 202

 

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India pays crude bill to Iran in rupee

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