India's Essar settles $500 M of Iran oil bill
6/30/2016 9:02:30 PM
Essar’s Vadinar refinery. Photo courtesy of Essar.
(Reuters) Essar Oil, the top Indian buyer of Iranian oil, has this month cleared $500 M of a debt owed to Tehran, two sources with direct knowledge of the matter said.
Essar, which operates a 400 Mbpd oil refinery at Vadinar in Western Gujarat state, owed about $3 B to Iran for oil purchases made when tough Western sanctions had choked banking channels.
Some of the sanctions were lifted earlier this year after Iran met all the conditions to curb its disputed nuclear program. That helped Iran in unlocking billions of dollars frozen overseas.
Indian refiners have been settling oil debts in euros via State Bank of India and Germany-based bank Europaeisch-Iranische Handelsbank AG (EIH).
Reporting by Nidhi Verma; Editing by William Hardy
Comments