India's Essar Clears $500mln of Iran Oil Dues: Report
TEHRAN (Tasnim) – India’s Essar Oil has settled $500 million of its outstanding oil dues to Iran, a report said.
Essar Oil, the top Indian buyer of Iranian oil, has this month cleared $500 million of a debt owed to Tehran, two sources with direct knowledge of the matter said, Reuters reported.
Essar, which operates a 400,000 barrels per day oil refinery at Vadinar in Western Gujarat state, owed about $3 billion to Iran for oil purchases made when anti-Tehran sanctions had choked banking channels.
On May 21, the Indian government paid the first part of its outstanding oil dues to Iran in euros through Turkey's Halkbank.
It was the first payment to Iran by India since the removal of of the sanctions.
However, Indian refiners later on June 9 announced that they had started to settle the rest of their debts to Iran via State Bank of India and Germany-based bank Europaeisch-Iranische Handelsbank AG (EIH).
In addition to Essar Oil, Mangalore Refinery and Petrochemicals Ltd has to pay Iran $2.8 billion, and Indian Oil Corp owes $581 million. HPCL-Mittal Energy Ltd (HMEL) has to pay $97 million and Hindustan Petroleum Corp owes $29 million.
