INSUBCONTINENT EXCLUSIVE:
the government to rein in purchases in coming months.The oil imports from Iran jumped by about 34 per cent in April-October from a year
earlier, totalling 603,000 bpd or 17.7 million tonnes, tanker arrival data showed.The sharp increase was due to front-loading of purchases
by the country's refiners ahead of renewed US sanctions on Tehran, which came into effect on Monday.By choking Iran's oil and shipping
industries, Washington aims to try to force Tehran to quash its nuclear ambitions and ballistic missile programme as well as its support for
militant proxies in the Middle East.The United States granted exemptions to India, China and six other countries, allowing them to
temporarily continue buying Iranian oil, but those waivers carry conditions.For India, Iran's No
2 oil customer, the 180-day waiver allows refiners to buy only up to 1.25 million tonnes a month, or about 300,000 bpd
That means the country will have to slash its monthly purchases from Iran by about half to comply with the waiver.Analysts still expect that
India's purchases of Iranian crude in the full fiscal year ending in March 2019 will exceed the 452,000 bpd, or 22.6 million tonnes, that it
imported in the previous year, according to government data.But there have been some signs of a drop-off in demand
In October, India imported about 466,000 bpd of Iranian oil, according to preliminary tanker arrival data obtained from sources, a decline
of 11.6 percent from September and marginally down from October last year.Most India refiners boosted purchases from Iran ahead of the
the impact of rising global oil prices and a weak rupee."Indian refiners imported a lot from Iran in the first half of the fiscal year
mainly due to the discount offered by Iran," said Sri Paravaikkarasu, head of East of Suez Oil for consultants FGE in Singapore.She said
Delhi could even ask refiners to cut imports below the waiver level to curry favour with Washington.Last year, the country's imports fell as
refiners had curtailed Iranian oil purchases due to a dispute with Tehran over development rights to a giant gas field.State-run refiners
that control about 60 per cent of the country's capacity had contracted to buy 396,000 bpd of Iranian oil in the current fiscal year
But with new US sanctions in place, they will now have to tell Iran that they cannot fulfil those agreements.
