India in talks with Iran to resume crude oil imports
Indian sources said the country is willing to resume importing Iranian crude oil, adding that the issue was discussed in recent bilateral meetings held between the foreign ministers of the two countries.
India is reportedly considering the resumption of crude oil imports from Iran following the escalation of fighting in the Red Sea and the Gulf of Aden near Yemen, wrote Tasnim News Agency.
The issue has been on the agenda during the recent bilateral talks when Indian External Affairs Minister S. Jaishankar visited Iran last week.
The route for Iranian oil shipments passes through the Persian Gulf and Gulf of Oman, swarajyamag.com reported.
So far, India has refrained from purchasing crude oil from nations under international sanctions. It only started importing oil from Venezuela after the US lifted sanctions on the Bolivarian country.
“We are always monitoring the situation when it comes to crude flows. However, there have been proposals to resume crude oil imports from Iran. We are studying them,” an official said to the Business Standard report.
Iran’s oil revenues neared $34 billion in the first nine months of 2023 despite brutal US sanctions, accounting for 12 percent of OPEC member states’ total income.
The International Energy Agency (IEA), in its report, put Iran’s oil revenues at $33.9 billion during the period – two times the income obtained in 12 months in 2020, Shana reported.
The agency put 13 OPEC member states’ total revenues from January-September 2023 at $281.2 billion.
According to the US Department of Energy’s estimates, Iran sold only $17 billion and $37 billion of crude oil in 2020 and 2021, respectively, while its revenues in 2022 hit $54 billion.
Iran also had the highest oil production increase among members of the Organization of Petroleum Exporting Countries (OPEC) in 2023 with over 300,000 barrels of oil per day (bpd) rise.
In its latest report, the US Department of Energy put Iran’s average daily oil production volume in 2023 at 2.870 million bpd.
According to the report, Iran’s oil production volume increased by 330,000 bpd compared to a year earlier.
This is while OPEC’s total oil production volume decreased by 630,000 barrels in 2023 compared to the year before. In total, OPEC’s member states produced 26.890 million barrels of oil per day in 2023, while they produced 27.520 million bpd in 2022.