n the first half of 2016 India's Iran oil imports surged by about 58 percent to about 342,000 bpd, the data showed, in comparison with 216,500 bpd in the same period last year.
HPCL-Mittal Energy Ltd. (HMEL), partly owned by steel tycoon Lakshmi N. Mittal, took a cargo from Tehran after a three-and-a-half-year break.
Last month HMEL took a million barrels of Iranian oil, according to preliminary tanker arrival data from trade sources and ship-tracking services on the Thomson Reuters terminal.
Indian refiners took in about 381,500 bpd of Iranian oil in June, the data showed.
The June shipments were about 0.6 percent higher from Iranian volumes in May, the data showed. In June last year India shipped in about 274,800 bpd oil from Iran.
India's oil imports from Iran are set to surge to a seven-year high in the year that began April 1, with the nation's state-owned and private refiners together buying at least 400,000 bpd.
In April-June, the first quarter of the current fiscal year, India's Iran oil purchases rose 25.6 percent to 384,500 bpd from about 306,000 bpd in the same year ago period, the data showed.
Private refiner, Essar Oil, was the top Indian client of Iran in June, importing about 180,600 bpd, followed by Mangalore Refinery and Petrochemicals Ltd with about 69,000 bpd, and Reliance Industries Ltd. with about 64,000 bpd.
Petchem exports to UK
For the first time in post-sanctions era, Iran sent a petrochemical consignment to Britain.
European countries accounted for about 13 percent of Iran's trade and export of petrochemical and polymeric products before international sanctions were imposed on Iran, wrote Mehr News Agency on Saturday.
In this regard, between $2 billion and $2.5 billion of Iranian petrochemical products were sent annually to the European countries.
Accordingly, for the first time during post-sanctions era, Iran's petrochemical exports to Britain began to put it the fourth major European country that has joined to the customers of Iranian petrochemical products, after France, Italy and Germany.
A shipment of Iran’s petrochemicals and polymer products have recently been consigned to Britain, while countries such as Bulgaria, Romania, Greece, Italy and France have been other customers of Iranian products.
Armenia gas import hike
Managing director of National Iranian Gas Exports Company (NIGEC) said an agreement was reached with Armenia over a threefold increase in Iran’s gas exports to the Caucasian country.
Following an earlier power deal between Iran and Armenia over increasing the electricity exchange volume, the two countries reached a new accord for boosting exports of natural gas.
Estimations reveal that electricity and gas exchanges between Iran and Armenia will soar threefold. NIGEC chief Alireza Kameli said Iran is now deploying one million cubic meters of natural gas to Armenia per day asserting that “the figure will hit three million cubic meters overall”.
“The two sides are currently preparing the required infrastructure for boosting natural gas exchange,” stressed the official adding that “the accord will soon be finalized.” Kameli pointed to the country’s gas production capacity stating that “at present, there are no limitations for increasing gas exports to Armenia”.