India receives major Iran oil cargo

India says it has received a consignment of 2 million barrels of oil from Iran and that the volume has been used to partly fill half of the capacity of a strategic storage in the country’s south. 

The consignment was imported by Mangalore Refinery and Petrochemicals Ltd (MRPL) through a very large crude carrier (VLCC).

A second consignment is to be procured by Bharat Petroleum Corp and is scheduled to arrive around October 25, the New Delhi-based Business Standard newspaper reported quoting sources with direct knowledge on the matter.

India will fill half of the storage with 6 million barrels of Iranian oil, the report added. New Delhi is engaged in talked with United Arab Emirates and Saudi Arabia for meeting the remaining demand, the daily added.

India, which is seeking to



hedge against energy security risks as it imports about 80 percent of its oil needs, is building emergency storage in vast underground caverns at three locations in southern India to hold a total of 36.87 million barrels of crude, enough to cover almost two weeks of demand, the Business Standard added. 

Other reports showed that India imported about 552,200 barrels per day (bpd) of oil from Iran in September.  The figure, Reuters reported, was down by 4.1 percent compared to August when imports from Tehran hit their highest in at least 15 years.

India's average Iranian oil imports in April-September, the first six months of India's financial year, rose nearly four-fifths to about 468,000 bpd.  Reuters said in a report that Iran’s share in India’s overall purchases during the period had jumped to 11 percent.