A month after US President Donald Trump pulled out of an international nuclear deal with Iran, India’s State Bank of India reportedly informed oil refiners that it would not handle payments for the crude from November.
According to reports, the Indian Oil Corp (IOC) said on Friday that imports of oil from Iranian will be hit from the end of August till the time a new payment route is established.
Trump had pledging to re-impose tough sanctions on Iran within 180 days of pulling out of the deal, which was signed during Barack Obama’s rule.
Reports say that India had cut imports from Iran in 2017-18 due to a dispute over a giant gas field. Yet Iran, which supplied about 458,000 barrels per day (bpd) in the fiscal year to March 2018, remains India’s third-biggest oil supplier. The supply is a tenth of India’s oil imports.
According to The Hindu, SBI has informed Indian refiners and the Centre in writing about its decision citing an “immediate impact on our US operations”.
India’s refiners currently use SBI and Germany-based Europaeisch-Iranische Handelsbank AG to buy Iranian oil in euros, according to IOC and other companies, said the report.