Mumbai: With US sanctions on Iran and Venezuela coming into effect on 2 May and Saudi Arabia restraining crude oil output, Indian refiners have started looking for sources of new crude oil supply to feed their refineries with heavy sweet crude, in addition to importing from Iraq.
Refiners prefer the heavy sweet crude supplied by Iran and Venezuela, which helps them produce low-sulphur fuel oil ahead of new shipping emissions norms that kick in January 2020.
In 2018-19, India imported close to 10% of its domestic oil requirement from Iran. Though refiners said Iran offered commercially attractive oil import terms to India, including a 60-day credit period and discounts on oil and insurance, it will not have a major impact on revenue, since for India, it is only 10% of its total oil import.
