Indian oil refiners will be making $700 million oil payment to Iran on September 30. This will be the first payment following Iran's landmark nuclear deal with world powers in July paved the way for easing sanctions against the country. The refiners will deposit rupee equivalent of $700 million in Kolkata-based UCO Bank which will then transmit the money to Reserve Bank of India (RBI). UCO Bank has already bought dollars in the forward markets for payments into the Central Bank of Iran`s account with Oman`s Bank Muscat.
Mangalore Refinery and Petrochemicals (MRPL) will pay $300 million in dues and Essar Oil will clear $300 million, Hindustan Petroleum Corp (HPCL) and HPCL-Mittal Energy (HMEL) will be the other refiners which will clear part of their outstanding. Last month, the US Treasury had approved the payment of $1.4 billion out of India's $6.5 billion outstanding oil payments to Iran. The timing for the second installment was not declared yet. The remaining $4 billion would be cleared in tranches after payment channels are cleared.
From February 2013, Indian refiners like Essar Oil and MRPL have been paying 45% of payment in rupees through UCO Bank, Kolkata which is due on purchase of crude oil from Iran while the remaining has been accumulating thereafter. Last fiscal, they had paid nearly $3 billion in six installments through a limited payment channel. Since then the outstanding has reached over $6.5 billion.
Earlier in 2011, when US and western powers blocked payment channels in a bid to bring Iran to the negotiating table over its controversial nuclear programme, RBI had facilitated oil payments to Iran via Turkey. Currently, the outstanding dues of Iran for crude oil purchases stand at $3.34 billion for Essar Oil, $2.49 billion for MRPL, $581 million for IOC, $97 million for HMEL and $29 million for HPCL. Besides, about Rs 17,000 crore was lying in Iranian account with UCO Bank.
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