Iran ready to increase oil exports to India

Iran said on Saturday that it is ready to increase its oil exports to India from the current volume of 350,000 barrels per day (bpd) now that the sanctions that had previously hampered Iranian oil export plans have been lifted.

“We hope that India’s imports of oil from Iran will increase now that the sanctions have been removed,” Oil Minister Bijan Zangeneh told his visiting Indian counterpart Dharmendra Pradhan, Press TV reported.

Zangeneh also said that Tehran and New Delhi have been discussing the development of Farzad B gas field by Indian companies for a long time, expressing hope that the two countries would bring their views over the project closer during Pradhan’s visit.

The Iranian oil minister further emphasized that the Islamic Republic is ready to facilitate energy ties with India in several areas including providing natural gas to Indian petrochemical projects as well as other energy-intensive projects in Iran.

Top on the agenda of talks between Iran and India during Pradhan’s visit will be the settlement of debts that Indian companies owe Iran for previous oil imports from the country.

Indications appeared in the media in early March that the two sides have come across differences over settling of the debts.

The difference reportedly involves the foreign exchange rate for the sum that India owes Iran.

SS