INSUBCONTINENT EXCLUSIVE:
India has been allowed by Washington to continue to buy about 300,000 bpd oil till early May.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 United States
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.Delivery of some cargoes is delayed to March as Tehran
has a limited number of ships.In the previous fiscal year that ended on March 31, 2018 Indian refiners cut purchases from Iran due to a
dispute over the award of development rights of a giant gas field.Government sources say Reuters' calculations showing India's oil imports
from Iran in this fiscal year would be higher than the 452,000 bpd, or 22.6 million tonnes, it imported in the previous year, were
correct.India's total oil imports in February were about 5 million barrels, a growth of about 4.6 per cent from a year earlier, the data
showed.(Except for the headline, this story has not been edited by TheIndianSubcontinent staff and is published from a syndicated feed.)Get
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