India will entirely pay its oil debts to Iran by the end of August, S. Qamsari - the National Iranian Oil Company director for international affairs announced in Tehran on Saturday.
“Indian buyers have so far paid more than $2 billion of their debts to Iran and will pay the rest by the end of August,” Seyyed Mohsen Qamsari told the state-backed Mehr news agency.
“Currently, four Indian buyers are paying their oil debts to Iran,” Qamsari added.
Indian refiners said they expected Iran to resume 400,000 barrels a day of oil exports in September, following an uncertain August, now that they have been able to start paying the debt that Deputy Oil Minister Ahmad Qalebani said amounted to $4.8 billion, according to Reuters.
India, Asia’s third-largest economy and Iran’s second-largest oil buyer after China, racked up the debt after the Reserve Bank of India scrapped a clearing house system last December.
India imports about 20 percent of its crude oil needs from Iran. Indian refineries have also been designed in a way to refine Iranian heavy crude oil.
