In the first quarter of this year, Indian oil purchases from Iran averaged 450,100 barrels a day, significantly higher than its purchases from Iran last year, which averaged 285,000 barrels a day.
But Reuters reported that tanker discharge data showed deliveries of Iranian crude last month were just 269,400 barrels day, down 40.1 percent from the first quarter average.
What’s more, Reuters said the major cutbacks were made by state-run buyers, leaving the private firm Essar as the largest Indian buyer of Iranian oil.
The sudden drop could be a one-month fluke. That happens in oil shipments, since one giant tanker delayed a few days into the next month can depress figures for the current month. It will take another month of figures to know if the cutback was for real.
While Indian oil buys from Iran were down 139,700 barrels a day from March to April, its purchases from Iraq were up 348,500 barrels. Iraq was the only country from which India bought substantially more in April, according to the Reuters data.
US Secretary of State Hillary Clinton was in India this week and made clear that part of her mission was to nudge the Indians to do more to reduce their Iranian oil purchases if they do not wish to face US sanctions June 28.
In an interview with Bloomberg Radio in New Delhi, Clinton said, “We are aware that refineries have cut their orders and the actual purchases have been reduced, so we’re encouraged by what India has done. We think they can do more.”
India has long been one of the major buyers of Iranian crude. And India is not happy about Iran’s nuclear program. But Indian nationalists balk at the thought of doing anything that the United States advocates. And one of the parties most critical of Washington is needed to get government legislation passed in parliament.
So the Indian government has publicly been very critical of sanctions and US policy. But numerous oil industry officials have said that the government started encouraging them back in January to cut buys of Iranian oil by 15 to 20 percent. But the discharge figures show they did no such thing at that time.
The US sanctions law enacted last year allows the president to exempt firms from sanctions if they make “significant” reductions in purchases of Iranian oil. The Administration has avoided defining “significant.”
Official state data show that comparing first quarter imports this year with first quarter imports last year, South Korea has reduced its buys of Iranian oil by 22 percent, Japan by 31 percent and China by 33 percent. The Reuters tanker discharge data for India, however, shows Indian purchases actually rose 58 percent from first quarter to first quarter before plummeting in April.