India Essar's May Iran imports down over 70 pct

India's Essar Oil, one of Iran's key Indian clients, has significantly reduced purchases from the santions-hit nation in May and switched to Latin
American grades, which accounted for about a third of its overall imports during the month, tanker discharge data made available to Reuters show.

Essar, which earlier this week completed an expansion of its Vadinar refinery in western Gujarat state to double capacity to 400,000 barrels per day (bpd), stepped up imports from Iran in January-March to meet last fiscal year's commitment and build stocks by July when tighter sanctions come into effect, making payments, insurance and supplies more uncertain.

It bought about 33,000 bpd in May, down more than 70 percent both from April and a year ago.

In April its Iranian oil imports declined by about a quarter from March and 6 percent from a year ago. Essar got nearly half its crude imports from Iran in January-May.

Overall imports by Essar rose 16 percent during January-May, the data shows. The refiner significantly raised imports from Iraq in May, to replace Iranian volumes.

Essar, whose crude slate comprises mainly Middle Eastern grades, also made a rare purchase of Venezuela's Leona 22 grade and Brazil's Jubarte oil in April-May, as the complexity of its plant has also been increased to process heavy and ultra heavy grades.

Essar imported about 127,000 bpd oil from Iran in January-May, data showed.

Indian refiners cut imports from Iran by 38 percent in May from a year ago, in a second month of steep reductions as they switch suppliers to cushion the impact of tighter western sanctions on Tehran.

Following are details of Essar's crude imports in April-May and since the beginning of this year.

Source: REUTERS