Reuters reported that Iran is receiving long overdue payments for its oil exports to India as two major buyers have started using a Turkish bank to get around US led moves to isolate the Islamic Republic.
Industry sources said that Iran’s biggest Indian customer, state run Mangalore Refinery and Petrochemicals Limited has made 3 payments totaling at least EUR 60 million through Turkey’s state controlled Halkbank with a view to using that channel to overcome the blockage. But the refiner, which was confident of smooth imports from Iran has not yet received the crude supply plan for the month.
India has been largely unable to pay Iran for oil since December when the Reserve Bank of India halted a clearing mechanism under US pressure to crack down on doing business with Iran. Some payments were made through Germany based Europaeisch Iranische Handelsbank, a conduit that was also halted under US pressure. Debts now amount to some USD 5 billion.
Essar Oil the second biggest Indian buyer of Iranian oil has made a small payment to NIOC via Halkbank and Hindustan Petroleum would do so on Tuesday. Essar’s total debt to Iran as of June 30th 2011 was about USD 2 billion of which USD 800 million was payable the company’s head of finance Suresh Jain said last month.
Mr Alpana Killawala chief GM at Reserve Bank of India said that “Different options are being worked out to make payment for oil imports from Iran and oil companies are making payments for bona fide oil imports within the framework of existing international regulations.”
Mr Mahmoud Bahmani governor of Iran’s central bank said that Tehran would not need Turkish help while Iran’s ambassador to India said Turkey was one of several possible intermediaries. Turkey does not have any role in transferring Iran’s money from India. Iran itself will receive its debt arrears.
Mr Mehdi Nabizadeh Iran’s envoy to New Delhi said that “Iran and India’s officials’ efforts to resolve the problem led to negotiations with two or three third parties of which Turkey was one.”
Mr Emad Hosseini spokesperson of Iran Parliament's Energy Commission said that lawmakers had urged the government to maintain a block on exports of crude to India until the payments problem was resolved and said Turkey, a neighbor of Iran could be key to settling the dispute. Apparently India was supposed to begin paying back its debt to Iran via Turkey and if this is done theoretically the suspension of Iranian crude exports to India should be halted.
(Sourced from Reuters)
