India on Tuesday sought to downplay the United States decision of exempting it from economic sanctions for cutting the oil imports from Iran, saying it was a "decision taken by the Obama Administration under its domestic law."
Iran's seizure of a British-flagged oil tanker was allegedly due to a collision with an Iranian fishing boat, Iran's official news agency IRNA said.
State-own oil explorer Oil and Natural Gas Corporation and the Hinduja group have been offered 40 per cent stake in the development of phase-XII of the giant South Pars gas field of Iran.
Under the scheme, National Iranian Oil Co, too, will open an account in a UAE or Turkey-based bank to receive direct money transfer from oil companies.
India has long been a leader in non-proliferation, stood side by side with all of us in the international community to say that Iran should not acquire a nuclear weapon," US Under Secretary of State for Political Affairs Wendy Sherman told reporters in New Delhi.
At BSE, 1,799 scrips declined and 714 advanced, while 184 remained unchanged.
More than six months after a Reserve Bank of India order threw out a mechanism to pay for Iranian oil, Oil Minister S Jaipal Reddy on Tuesday said India is trying to ensure uninterrupted supplies of crude from the Persian Gulf nation.
Given that India will get a huge part of its oil supplies from Iran through its government-owned oil PSUs, any unwelcome shocks in global crude rates could be absorbed well enough.
Rao asserted that India has been transparent on this issue with international partners given its enormous energy security needs.
The UAE central bank will then make payments in dirhams to Iran.
India's exports to Iran have been falling over the last one year, amid decline in rupee reserves of the West Asian economy. Going ahead, the possibility of augmenting exports to Iran may not be easy for India, considering the geopolitical tensions - Russia-Ukraine and Israel-Hamas conflicts - and the West Asian country's support for Russia and Hamas, people aware of the matter said. Exports to Iran saw a downward spiral since November last year.
The falls meant that both crude futures were at their lowest levels since mid-April
As China's Foreign Minister Sun Weidong visited Pakistan on a mediation mission, a statement from Foreign Ministry on Monday said it is maintaining close contacts with Pakistan and Iran to 'bridge their differences'.
External Affairs Minister S M Krishna arrived in Washington to hold the third India-United States Strategic Dialogue with Secretary of State Hillary Clinton during which the two leaders are expected to discuss a range of bilateral and regional issues including Afghanistan and Pakistan.
Amid reports claiming America has threatened India with sanctions if it does not reduce its Iranian oil imports by June end, United States officials on Friday said Washington and New Delhi are having "productive conversations" on the issue and termed the reports as "highly speculative".
United States Secretary of State Hillary Clinton has said that India, along with countries like China and Turkey, is taking steps to reduce its dependency on Iranian oil.
The government is keen on getting global oil majors like Saudi Aramco and National Iranian Oil Corp on board Hindustan Petroleum and Bharat Petroleum through the market route even though privatisation of the state-run oil refining and marketing compa
Tehran is seeking at least 7.2 dollars per mBtu price for gas it wants to sell to India and Pakistan through the over 7 billion dollar pipeline while New Delhi is willing to pay no more than 4.2 dollars per mBtu for gas delivered at its border.
As the Barack Obama administration tries to impress upon India and other nations to join in the US-led sanctions regime against Iran to isolate that country for its alleged nuclear weapons programme and reduce their energy dependence on Teheran, India's Ambassador to the United States Nirupama Rao noted that India's imports of Iranian oil has been on the decline and predicted it may dissipate even further.
The Obama administration is moving ahead with a 'range of steps short of war' that it hopes will forestall an Israeli attack on Iran, while forcing Tehran to take more seriously negotiations that are all but stalemated, a media report on Monday said.
Oil experts from Iran and Pakistan will meet in Teheran on Tuesday to add finishing touches to the $7-billion gas pipeline project linking the two countries as well as India, which is not attending the talks, a media report said.
The new Samvat 2080 is viewed as a year of hope for industrial and precious metals. A key reason is the expectation of US interest rates peaking, followed by a reduction in the coming months. Regarding crude oil, its trajectory depends more on how the situation unfolds in West Asia.
The Modi government caved in under American pressure without even token resistance. Two countries similarly placed as India with high dependence on Iranian oil -- China and Turkey -- have shown the grit to stand up to Washington, says Ambassador M K Bhadrakumar.
The Reserve Bank of India's rather sudden and unilateral decision to discontinue the Asian Clearing Union, a move that effectively stops settlements in dollars and the Euro, will most impact Mangalore Refinery, which sources 60 per cent of its crude needs from Iran.
Shipping Corporation of India's oil tanker, MT Desh Shanti, which was detained in Iran for 26 days, arrived at Visakhapatnam port in the early hours on Wednesday, sources said.
Iran and Pakistan have signed a deal in Turkey paving the way for constructing the much- delayed natural gas pipeline that was originally envisaged to extend up to India.
India is keen to partner the proposed multi-billion Iran-Pakistan-India (IPI) gas pipeline project and has promised to resist "all external pressures on the issue", Iranian oil minister Gholam Hossein Nozari said.India's petroleum minister Murli Deora is set to arrive in Pakistan on April 21 to hold talks on transit fee to be paid to Islamabad on the $7 billion IPI project.
ONGC Videsh Ltd, the overseas arm of India's largest oil producer, Oil and Natural Gas Corporation, is holding talks with the Iranian government for exploring an oil block in the northern part of the country. Chinese company Sinopec is also believed to be in the race for the block. This could not be independently confirmed. The block is near the Caspian Sea.
An obscure Indian bank has been an unlikely beneficiary of Western sanctions against Iran, handling billions of dollars from frozen oil payments that boosted its interest margins, but is now having to prepare itself for life after the windfall.
Iran on Tuesday indicated that it may be willing to change the delivery point of gas it wants to sell to India through a pipeline passing through Pakistan, but wanted New Delhi and Islamabad to decide quickly on the $7.4 billion project.
President Trump, in a move that could have implications on India's energy security, on Monday decided not to grant sanctions exemptions to any oil customers of Iran, further squeezing Tehran's top export commodity.
Iran said it will not set any deadline for India to join the gas pipeline that also includes Pakistan and hoped New Delhi will not buckle under US pressure to dump the multi-billion dollar project for a rival pipeline from Turkmenistan. "We have not set any deadline (for India to join the IPI pipeline project)," Iranian Oil Minister Gholamhossein Nozari said on Thursday.
Iran is India's largest importer of tea in value terms while in terms of volume, it is the second largest after Russia
In a statement issued on Saturday, Austin said that the US and the UK also received support from Australia, Bahrain, Canada, Denmark, the Netherlands and New Zealand in conducting the additional strikes.
Oil imports are a third of India's total import bill.
China Thursday offered to play a 'constructive role' to ease tension between Pakistan and Iran following their missile strikes against each other over the last two days and asked the two countries to 'exercise restraint and calmness and avoid escalation'.
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