Amid indications that it maybe looking at Tehran for crude, New Delhi on Tuesday made it clear that it only subscribed to UN sanctions on the country and not the US.
“We don’t subscribe to the US sanctions, we subscribe to the UN sanctions. We were party to the UN sanctions, to the UN resolution and voted for it,” external affairs minister Salman Khurshid said in response to a question on what India plans to do to circumvent US sanctions on importing oil from Iran.
“There are issues of availability of insurance and vessels for carrying oil and of a banking system active and ready to be used for payments.”
He was talking on the sidelines of the FICCI-organised 3rd National Conference on Energy Security here.”This is a critical moment in which we need to do some tidying up and we will get over the situation in the not-too-distant future,” he said.
He also said talks were being held with Iran over the issue of the detention of Indian oil tanker MV Desh Shanti. The minister’s comments comes in the wake of suggestions that India could save $8.5-billion in foreign exchange spending on crude if it relies more on supplies from Iran, which is able to accept payment in rupees.
Khurshid also said that economists and bankers were examining how to manage to pay for Iranian oil with the earlier mode of payment by India through an Ankara bank being switched off.
“What happened in the past is the banking channels available to us through Turkey have now been switched off… So, how we manage it, it is for the economists and bankers to see,” he added.
The US and European Union sanctions have pushed Tehran into accepting payment in rupees for some of its oil and higher volumes could support the currency.
Oil minister M Veerappa Moily, in a letter to PM Manmohan Singh, has detailed plans to save $20 billion in foreign exchange spending, suggesting that about 11 million tonnes of crude can be imported from Iran this fiscal.
The prime minister has asked the ministry for a $25-billion cut in the oil import bill to narrow the current account deficit.
