but the various stories are so contradictory in their details as to raise questions whether anything has actually happened.
The most likely explanation for the contradictions, however, is that Tehran is trying to obscure what is happening for fear the United States will spike the repayment system.
India stopped making payments in December when the Reserve 
Bank of India, the country’s central bank, said it wouldn’t process payments any longer for fear of running afoul of US banking restrictions.
Within weeks, Indian officials were telling reporters that only a few finishing touches were required before payments would resume. Such stories continued to pop up in the Indian media in February, March, April, May, June and July—all of them now clearly false.
In February, there actually was a payment made through a German-Iranian bank in Hamburg. But within days, French and American screams prompted the German government to shut down that payment route.
Two weeks ago, Iran, clearly growing impatient over the continuing non-payment, said it had cut deliveries to India for August. Indian refineries confirmed that they had been unable to book any quantities of Iranian oil for August. That may have sparked the latest rash of stories that could be summarized as: “The check is in the mail.”
On Monday, Reuters quoted Indian industry sources as saying that Mangalore Refinery and Petrochemicals Ltd. (MRPL), India’s largest buyer of Iranian oil, had made three payments totaling at least 60 million euros through Turkey’s state-controlled Halkbank.
Most of the stories in India centered on Halkbank and said Indian importers would pay Halkbank, which would in turn pay Iran.
Reuters said Essar Oil, the second biggest Indian buyer, had made a small payment via Halkbank and Hindustan Petroleum was about to make a payment this week.
Mahmud Bahmani, the governor of Iran’s Central Bank, told the Mehr news agency that the oil payment problem was history and the payments were flowing into Iran. But he said, “Turkey does not have any role in the payment of India’s oil arrears.” He didn’t explain how the money was getting to Iran and why the Indians said they were paying the funds to Halkbank.
Some speculated that Iran did not wish to identify Turkey and Halkbank as the route for payment out of fear the United States would then move quickly to throttle Halkbank.
Indian officials and refiners were unanimous, however, in identifying Halkbank.
Halkbank was founded in 1938. Its webpage shows it has foreign branches only in Bahrain and Northern Cyprus and one representative office abroad in Tehran.
The above reports and contradictory news were all published Monday. Also on Monday, Iran’s ambassador to India, Mehdi Nabizadeh, said a new mechanism for making payments had been designed but that he was awaiting a decision by Iran’s Central Bank before the mechanism could be implemented.
The ambassador also said that negotiations over the new mechanism had been held with three countries, including Turkey. He said that if Turkey came on board, there would be no need to continue talks with the other unnamed countries. The ambassador was saying the new payment mechanism had not been nailed down yet and was just tentative. Some Indian news reports quoting Indian industry sources said the same thing.
Meanwhile, Ahmad Qale-bani, the managing director of the National Iranian Oil Co. (NIOC), denied that Iran had stopped oil shipments to India. “Iran’s oil exports to India continue like in the past and the report concerning a halt to exports is not true at all,” he told the Mehr news agency. But in the same interview, he said, “Oil exports to this Asian country have decreased due to some technical problems, however the reduction in exports is temporary.” He failed to explain how shipments could “continue like in the past” while simultaneously falling “due to some technical problems.”
A few days earlier, Mehr reported, without quoting any source, that Iran had reduced its exports to India by 90,000 barrels a day “due to technical problems in India’s terminals, not as a result of Iran’s ultimatum to India over its oil arrears.” The Indian importers have said nothing about any technical problems.
The Fars news agency, however, quoted an unnamed Oil Ministry official on Monday as saying the halt in shipments for non-payment was still in place and would remain in place until the arrears were paid.
Indian refiners late last month began buying crude from Saudi Arabia after they said the NIOC refused to sign any contracts for August shipments. Hindustan Petroleum said last week that it had boosted its purchase of Saudi oil by another 1 million barrels and was planning to buy from other suppliers, including Kuwait
Central Bank Governor Bahmani last week said India owed Iran $5 billion for oil delivered since December. The Iran Times noted that others have calculated a much higher level of around $8 billion. Deputy Emad Hossaini of the Majlis Energy Committee sought to clear that up. He said India owes Iran $7.9 billion for oil, but that $4.8 billion of that is in arrears. Oil is normally sold with a provision of 90 days for settlement. So the payments for oil delivered in the last three months would not be in arrears.
