India will import Iran’s oil despite US sanctions

Vipin Kumar | Hindustan Times via Getty Images

Minister of Petroleum & Natural Gas and Skill Development & Entrepreneurship, Dharmendra Pradhan gestures as he brief the media about the achievements of Ministry of Petroleum & Natural Gas and Ministry of Skill Development & Entrepreneurship in past 4 years at Shastri Bhawan on June 6, 2018 in New Delhi, India.

Two Indian oil companies have placed orders to import Iranian crude next month, Oil Minister Dharmendra Pradhan said Monday, defying a call from President Donald Trump’s administration for countries to completely cut-off the Islamic republic.

U.S. sanctions targeting Iran’s crude oil exports come into force from November 4, with Washington ratcheting up the pressure on governments and companies around the world to slash their Iranian oil imports to zero.

However, Oil Minister Pradhan said India would continue to purchase Iranian crude in November, according to Reuters.

Speaking at the “The Energy Forum” in New Delhi on Monday, he said the world’s third-largest oil importer did not know whether it would receive a waiver from U.S. sanctions.

Pradhan also added the country was considering evolving a different payment system to buy Iran’s oil and that it could pay using Indian rupees. This would signal an attempt to bypass U.S. sanctions on Iranian transactions using the dollar — the dominant currency in global oil trade.