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| Indian oil companies have paid first tranche of Iran oil debts: Indian Finance Minister |
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 Indian firms have paid the first installment of their Iran oil debts, Finance Minister Pranab Mukherjee told reporters on Friday.India and Iran have resolved the issue over payments, he said, triggered at end-December when the Reserve Bank of Indian scrapped a long-standing regional clearing house mechanism under the US pressure. Indian refiners' debts to Iran for some 400,000 barrels per day of crude had mounted towards $5 billion but a new mechanism put in place recently has allowed them to start payments. ---Indian Oil to Clear Iran Payments Soon Indian Oil Corp. paid Iran 73 million euros ($104 million) earlier this month and expects to clear its outstanding dues of about 380 million euro for crude purchases by the end of August, the financial head of the company said Wednesday. Indian Oil, the country's largest refiner, has opened a rupee account with Union Bank of India, which is making payments in euros to Turkey's Halkbank, P.K. Goyal said at a news conference. Indian refiners' dues towards Iran rose to more than $5 billion after the South Asian nation's central bank scrapped a longstanding clearing mechanism in December. Both countries tried settling trade through Germany's Bundesbank, but that channel was also closed under U.S. pressure. India has now started routing payments through Istanbul and media reports say the new conduit has U.S. approval. Iran's central bank has received 1 billion rupees ($1.42 billion) from Indian refiners and debts accumulated by India now stand at about $4.8 billion. Indian Oil buys 1.5 million tons, or 30,000 barrels, a day of crude from Iran. It has received 817,000 tons from Iran during April-July, Mr. Goyal said, adding that a cargo is expected in September as there were no contracted supplies for August. The new conduit would be used to make future payments as it looks permanent, Mr. Goyal said. Iran normally exports about 400,000 barrels of oil to India each day, making it India's second-largest crude supplier after Saudi Arabia. India is Iran's second-largest oil buyer after China. Iran had threatened to halt supplies from August pending clearance of dues worth billions of dollars. India's Oil Minister Jaipal Reddy said Monday the government of Iran had assured India that supplies will continue. (Source: Agencies)
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