Essar Oil's monthly crude imports from Iran rose 11.5 percent in September, when the private refiner's overall purchases declined 62 percent due to a full closure of its Vadinar refinery from the middle of the month for maintenance, according to tanker arrival data obtained from sources and assessed by Thomson Reuters Oil Analytics.
Essar, which imported oil only from Iran in September, shipped in about 121,900 barrels per day (bpd) of crude — an increase of 34.4 percent from a year ago — the data showed.
The data further revealed that Essar received about 106,300 bpd from Iran in January-September 2015 — a decline of about 8.9 percent from a year earlier — as the average for the first half was dragged down by Indian refiners skipping purchases in March to meet the last fiscal year's target of 220,000 bpd.
However, in April-September, the first half of this fiscal year, Essar's import of Iranian oil surged by 48.4 percent to 137,000 bpd. India, which is Iran's second-biggest customer behind China, bought about 17 percent more oil from Tehran in the April-September period.
Asian imports
Asian imports of Iranian oil fell nearly six percent from a year earlier in September, as Iran's biggest crude buyers held off from increasing purchases following the landmark agreement on Tehran's nuclear program in July.
Imports by Iran's four biggest buyers – China, India, Japan and South Korea — totaled just over one million barrels per day (bpd) last month, 5.9 percent lower than a year earlier, government and tanker-tracking data showed.
US and European Union sanctions were designed to keep Iran's exports at around one million bpd, down from 2.5 million bpd in 2011.
Iran's President Hassan Rouhani reaffirmed on Tuesday he expected sanctions on Iran to be lifted by yearend.
For the first nine months of 2015, Asian buyers took in almost 1.1 million bpd, down 6.1 percent from a year earlier.
Japan's purchases fell more than 15 percent from a year earlier to 173,971 bpd, trade ministry data showed on Friday.
Iran's oil loadings for next-month arrivals look to be headed towards a seven-month low in October, down 13 percent from revised September levels, according to tanker data.
Condensate loadings have been robust this month, however, as a result of Iran's attractive pricing relative to other suppliers of the natural gas byproduct.