India, the world’s No. 3 crude oil consumer, received about 266,000 barrels per day (bpd) of oil from Iran in November, according to a review of tanker arrival data from trade sources and numbers available on Thomson Reuters Eikon.
For April-November, the first eight months of this fiscal year, India shipped in about 427,200 bpd, according to the data reported by Reuters.
But India’s oil imports from Iran will likely rise in December, as vessels holding about 4 million barrels of oil sailed from the Iranian ports in end-November and discharged cargoes in early December, the data showed.
Iran has cut oil prices in efforts to retain Asian customers and boost the appeal of its crude compared with other Middle Eastern supply.
Overall India imported 4.7 million bpd oil in November, meaning growth of about 12 percent from a year ago as the country raised its refining capacity.
First deputy oil minister in November announced that Iran has turned to customers in Europe to shore up its crude oil exports.
Iran is in negotiations to secure new buyers in Europe, Marzieh Shahdaei said.
Shahdaei said some of our customers in Asia have reduced imports, but that does not undermine Iran’s crude exports.
Refiners in Italy, France, the Netherlands, Greece and Turkey are the biggest customers of Iranian crude in Europe.
