India Cut down Oil Import from Iran by 26.5% in Financial Year 2012-13

Keeping into view the US and European sanctions which was made it difficult to ship oil from the Persian Gulf nation, India has cut down the import of crude oil from Iran by over 26.5 per cent in the financial year ended 31 March 2013.

As per the official source India imported about 13.3 million tonnes of crude oil from Iran in 2012-13 fiscal, which was steeply down from 18.1 million tonnes shipped in the 2011-12 financial year.

India is counted among world’s fourth-largest oil importer while the decline in its import was sharper than by Iran’s other two big buyers, China and South Korea.

It is important here to note that the US and EU have shut down the use of their financial systems for Iranian crude trade, and Washington recently imposed more treasury sanctions on trade with Iran which is making the imports from the Islamic nation even more complicated.

Some facts and Figures
    
• In 2012-13, Iran has slipped three places to become India’s sixth-largest crude oil supplier.
• Iran, which was India’s second biggest supplier of crude oil after Saudi Arabia in 2010-11, supplied 13.3 million tonnes during 2012-13.
• The supplies from Iran were behind Saudi Arabia, Iraq, Venezuela, Kuwait and the UAE.
• India had in 2011-12 demoted Iran to the third spot with 18.1 million tonnes of imports. These were behind 32.5 million tonnes from Saudi Arabia and 24.1 million tonnes from Iraq.
• Iran had in 2009-10 supplied 21.2 million tonnes, which came down to 18.5 million tonnes in 2010-11 and to 18.1 million tonnes in the year after.
• During 2012-13, Iranian supplies made up for 7.2 per cent of the India’s oil imports, down from 10.5 per cent in the previous fiscal (2011-12).
• India, which relies on import for 79 per cent of its oil needs, bought a total of 182.5 million tonnes crude in 2012-13.