| Date: |
01-06-2012 |
| Subject: |
Iran takes India’s oil import cut in its stride |
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Iran on Thursday underlined that it would remain a ''reliable source'' of energy for India, even as New Delhi said the country’s refiners cut down crude imports from Tehran was due to commercial reasons in the wake of the US and EU sanctions aimed at discouraging oil purchase from the West Asian nation.
Deploring attempts of the US and other western countries to “paint India in a negative colour” on the issue of importing crude from Iran, New Delhi also sought to reassure Washington that the volume of oil it imported from the West Asian country had come down substantially and would continue to decline further in 2012-13.
Though India has so far been maintaining that it is not obliged to abide unilateral sanctions imposed on Iran, External Affairs Minister S M Krishna on Thursday told his Iranian counterpart Ali Akbar Salehi that the curbs imposed by the US and European Union did have an impact on the market.
Salehi is on a two-day tour to New Delhi to invite Prime Minister Manmohan Singh to the 16th summit of the Non-Aligned Movement, which is set to be held at Isfahan in Iran next August.
After a meeting with Salehi, Krishna said that India, being a responsible member of the United Nations, had always abided by the UN Security Council sanctions on Iran. “As far as other sanctions, those decided unilaterally or regionally, we are aware of such measures. In a globalised world, these actions can have an impact on the markets,” he said.
“Our commercial entities take these into account. Such measures should not impact on legitimate trade interests,” added Krishna, explaining the Indian refiners’ move to lessen dependence on crude from Iran.
India imported 18.50 MMT and 17.44 MMT (provisional) of crude oil from Iran during 2010-11 and 2011-12 respectively. The Centre on May 15 informed the Rajya Sabha that the target fixed for import of crude oil from Iran for the year 2012-13 was approximately 15.5 MMT, subject to techno-commercial and other considerations.
Source : deccanherald.com
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