India will entirely pay its oil debts to Iran by the end of August, the National Iranian Oil Company director for international affairs announced in Tehran on Saturday.
“Indian buyers have so far paid more than $2 billion of their debts to Iran and will pay the rest by the end of August,” Seyyed Mohsen Qamsari told the state-backed Mehr news agency.
“Currently, four Indian buyers are paying their oil debts to Iran,” Qamsari added.
Indian refiners said they expected Iran to resume 400,000 barrels a day of oil exports in September, following an uncertain August, now that they have been able to start paying the debt that Deputy Oil Minister Ahmad Qalebani said amounted to $4.8 billion, according to Reuters.
India, Asia’s third-largest economy and Iran’s second-largest oil buyer after China, racked up the debt after the Reserve Bank of India scrapped a clearing house system last December.
India imports about 20 percent of its crude oil needs from Iran. Indian refineries have also been designed in a way to refine Iranian heavy crude oil.
