NEW DELHI, Nov 21: Indian refiners owe USD 2.55 billion in oil dues to Iran, 90 per cent of which are payable by private sector Essar Oil Ltd, Oil Minister Dharmendra Pradhan said today.
Four Indian refiners had outstandings of USD 6.11 billion in May, 2016 when formal banking channels were opened with Iran after nearly four years. They came down to USD 2.55 billion as on November 15 after public sector refiners paid most of their dues to Iran, the minister said.
Mangalore Refinery and Petrochemicals Ltd (MRPL) had an outstanding of USD 2.557 billion towards Iran as on May 20, of which it paid USD 2.355 billion and now owes Iran only USD 202 million, he said in a written reply in Lok Sabha.
Essar Oil, which the Ruia-brothers have sold to Russian national oil company Rosneft in a USD 12.9 billion deal, had the biggest outstanding of USD 2.917 billion on May 20. Of this, it paid only USD 600 million and still owes USD 2.317 billion.
“Following the lifting of sanctions on Iran on January 16, 2016 and re-establishment of banking channels from May 20, 2016, Indian refineries have paid USD 3.563 billion out of USD 6.118 billion to Iran on account of payment due to National Iranian Oil Co (NIOC) for supply of crude oil,” he said.
State-owned Indian Oil Corp (IOC) has paid USD 538 million out of USD 550 million due to Iran while HPCL Mittal Energy Ltd, which operates a refinery at Bhatinda in Punjab, has cleared USD 52 million out of USD 76 million dues.
Rosneft last month signed agreement to buy a 49 per cent stake in Essar Oil’s 20 million tons a year Vadinar refinery in Gujarat, adjacent port and petrol pumps, while Trafigura and United Capital Partners (UCP) split another 49 per cent equity.
The deal has an enterprise value of close to USD 12.9 billion – USD 10.9 billion being for a 20 million tons a year refinery in Gujarat and over 2,700 petrol pumps and another USD 2 billion for Vadinar port in Gujarat. The deal factors in Essar Oil’s debt of about USD 4.5 billion and about USD 2 billion debt with the port company.
Also, the dues to Iran were to continue to be on Essar Oil books and the new owner will take responsibility of it.
To a separate question, Pradhan said India imported 12.1 million tons of crude oil from Iran during April-September. This compares to 12.7 million tons imported in whole of 2015- 16 and 11 million tons in each of the two previous fiscal.
Imports from Iran are second to only Saudi Arabia (20.4 million tons and Iraq (19.6 MT).
In 2015-16, Iran was behind Saudi Arabia (40.4 MT), Iraq (36.8 MT), Nigeria (23.4 MT) and UEA (15.7 MT), he said. (PTI)
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