MRPL not cutting back Iranian oil imports

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MRPL not cutting back Iranian oil imports

Mangalore Refinery and Petrochemicals Ltd , India's biggest buyer of Iranian crude at about 150,000 barrels per day, has not cut purchases despite US sanctions against Tehran, a top executive told Reuters on Friday.

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Mangalore Refinery and Petrochemicals Ltd , India's biggest buyer of Iranian crude at about 150,000 barrels per day, has not cut purchases despite US sanctions against Tehran, a top executive told Reuters on Friday.

The new US law allows President Barack Obama to offer waivers to prevent havoc in oil markets, but to receive the permits countries are expected to demonstrate that they are reducing ties with Tehran.

"We haven't cut back supplies from Iran," Sudhir Vasudeva, chairman of India's state-owned explorer Oil and Natural Gas Corp said in an interview. MRPL is a subsidiary of ONGC.

New financial sanctions signed into law by Obama on New Year's Eve make it difficult for most countries to buy Iranian oil. The European Union is expected to announce tough measures of its own at the end of the month.

Indian companies have begun talks with alternative suppliers to slowly replace Iranian oil, fearing their current mechanism for payments to Tehran for some 350,000 barrels a day (bpd) via Turkey could soon succumb to sanctions.

Vasudeva did not give any detail on where the alternative supplies would come from but said: "We are taking 7 million tonnes from Iran. The payment mechanism through Halkbank is working as of now."

India, which a year ago lost one conduit for payments, is already looking for alternatives as Halkbank , the Turkish bank handling some transfers, refused to open an account for Indian refinery Bharat Petroleum .

India is talking to a Russian bank as an alternative to Halkbank, a government source had said last month.

Washington and its allies are imposing the measures to force Iran to abandon a nuclear programme which they say is aimed at producing an atomic bomb. Iran says the programme is peaceful.

Officials at Indian oil firms have said they would approach the country's oil ministry to ask it to request exemptions. Japan and Turkey, both US allies, have said they would try to secure a waiver.

"The government is thinking of making a request for a waiver. There is a possibility of calling a meeting (of Indian government officials) shortly to discuss the matter," a source with direct knowledge of the matter said on Friday.

India imports a hefty 400,000 barrels a day of crude - worth about USD 12 billion a year - from Iran, making it India's seventh largest trading partner, accounting for 3% of India's total trade volume.

India-Iran annual crude deals run from April to March.