New Delhi: Even as India is under pressure from US to cut supplies from Iran, the Islamic nation became the second largest supplier of crude oil to country’s public sector firms during the first three months of current fiscal, said Oil minister Dharmendra Pradhan on Monday.
Iran piped Saudi Arabia to become the second largest supplier of crude oil as Indian firms took advantage of steeper discounts offered by Tehran.
PSUs bought 5.67 million tonnes of crude oil from the Gulf nation during April-June, higher than imports from Saudi Arabia. Imports from Iran were only second to Iraq. India shipped in 7.27 million tonnes of oil from Iraq.
State refiners had curbed imports from Iran last year in protest against Tehran’s move to grant development rights for the giant Farzad B gas field to other parties.
