Sandeep Dikshit
Tribune News Service
New Delhi, April 23
India is confident of overcoming the difficulties posed by an American diktat to stop oil imports from Iran after nine days.
Petroleum Minister Dharmendra Pradhan said the government had put in place a robust plan for maintaining adequate supply of crude to the Indian refineries. The country plans to buy extra oil from Mexico, UAE, Kuwait, Saudi Arabia and the US. Its contracts with these countries have the leeway to purchase more than the contracted quantity.
The External Affairs Ministry said India would continue to work with partner nations, including the US, to find all possible ways to protect India’s energy and economic security interests.
As India’s energy and economic security interests call for diversity in its exports basket and leveraging its status as a buyer to pursue its geopolitical interests in oil supplying countries, the issue would come up during meetings with US State Department official for South Asia Alice Wells.
Twice in the past, India has acceded to US pressure to reduce its purchase of Iranian oil. But it kept the relationship afloat with relatively smaller buys. The Indian aim is to keep Tehran in good humour, while working on a trade route to Afghanistan via Iranian territory because of Pakistan’s denial of transit access.
There was no word whether India would completely cut off its oil ties with Iran. This could impact the development of this trade route on which India has already invested nearly Rs1,000 crore for modernising a port that would be the stepping stone for ingress of its goods into Afghanistan.
Sources said despite utilising the optional contracts to the fullest with West Asian and North American countries, India would also be compelled to make spot buys where the rates were higher. They admitted that India’s crude import bill is set to climb in near future because the global oil markets are in a tight position.
from The Tribune http://bit.ly/2DyY7oK
via Today’s News Headlines
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