India Pays Crude Import Dues To Iran.

India's oil minister says New Delhi has started making overdue payments to Iran for oil imports after the two countries resolved a row over how to pay for Iranian crude.


Sudini Jaipal Reddy said on Thursday that Iran and India agreed on a new mechanism to clear the payments to the Central Bank of Iran, The Wall Street Journal reported.

“Pending dues of National Iranian Oil Company are now being cleared and as of March 1, 2011, payment of €1.5 billion has been made to the Central Bank of Iran,” the Indian oil minister said.

Iran is India's second-largest oil supplier after Saudi Arabia, and New Delhi imports 12 million barrels of crude oil every month from the Islamic Republic.

Jaipal further said around 21.2 million tons of crude oil was imported from Iran during the fiscal year of 2009-2010 (from March 21, 2009 to March 21, 2010).

Mangalore Refinery imported 6.9 million tons, Essar Oil 5.3 million tons, Reliance 3.3 million tons, Hindustan Petroleum Corp Ltd. 3.2 million tons, and Indian Oil 2.5 million tons.

The State Bank of India (SBI) will make payments in euros to the National Iranian Oil Company through the Germany-based Europaisch-Iranische Handelsbank (EIH Bank).

Oil companies working with Iran will make payments to the National Iranian Oil Company's account in EIH Bank in Hamburg via the SBI.

The problem in the payments arose when the Indian Central Bank said import payments to Iran would have to be settled outside the existing Asian Clearing Union (ACU) mechanism.

The ACU is a regional payment arrangement used by the central banks of member nations -- Bangladesh, Bhutan, India, Iran, Nepal, Pakistan, the Maldives, Myanmar and Sri Lanka.

Source : presstv.ir