India has paid Eur1.5 billion ($2.07 billion) of pending dues to the National Iranian Oil Company for crude oil imports to Central Bank of Iran as of Tuesday, oil minister S. Jaipal Reddy told parliament in a written reply Thursday.
The reply did not specify whether the payment issue with Iran had been settled. Reddy said a delegation representing various ministries and organizations visited Iran in January to work out payment modalities outside of the Asian Clearing Union. All payments to Iran up to December 22, 2010, when the central Reserve Bank of India stopped them, were being routed through the Asian Clearing Union.
Reddy said in the 2009-10 fiscal year (April-March) India imported 21.2 million mt of crude from Iran. Indian Oil Corp imported 2.5 million mt, Hindustan Petroleum Corp., 3.2 million mt, Mangalore Refinery and Petrochemicals Ltd, 6.9 million mt, Reliance Industries 3.3 million mt and Essar Oil 5.3 million mt.
Up to September of the current fiscal year total imports stood at 8.9 million mt, which includes 1 million mt by IOC, 300,000 mt by Bharat Petroleum Corp., 1.3 million mt by HPCL, 3.3 million mt by MRPL and 3 million mt by Essar.
