After a successful test
payment in euros through Turkey’s Halkbank, Indian refiners are expected
to clear over $5 billion of debts built up with Iran during a lengthy
US-inspired payment impasse. “After intensive talks between India
and Iran, both sides agreed to clear the debt promptly,” Ahmad
Ghalebani, head of the National Iranian Oil Co. (NIOC), told SHANA. “In the coming days part of India’s oil debt will be cleared and the rest will be gradually settled.” There
is no ban under US or UN sanctions aimed at Iran’s disputed nuclear
program on buying Iranian crude, but they have hindered international
bank payments to Tehran. India and Iran have been looking for ways
for New Delhi to pay for some 400,000 barrels per day of Iranian crude,
or 12 percent of India’s oil demand, since the Reserve Bank of India
halted a clearing mechanism under US pressure last December. Executives
at Indian refineries said in late July they had still not received any
crude oil supply notices for August after Iran told them it would stop
shipments over the ballooning debt. Saudi Arabia has agreed to send
millions of extra barrels next month to fill the expected hole in Indian
refiners’ supply and an industry source said their orders had not been
canceled by Sunday afternoon. But Mohsen Ghamsari, head of
international affairs at NIOC, told SHANA there had been no cuts in
Iranian crude exports to India and no plans to make any. “With the
start of the international banks working hours on Monday, the amounts
deposited by Indians in the designated accounts will be known,” Ghamsari
was quoted as saying by SHANA. An Iranian official who spoke on
condition of anonymity told Reuters India would pay mainly in euros but
also use other currencies to settle its oil debt to the Islamic state. “Both sides are determined to resolve the problems through different methods,” the official said. “Different currencies will be used by India to pay its debt to Iran but the main part of the payment will be in euro.”
