Hillary to ask India to cut oil imports from Iran

Kolkata, May 6: Pressing India to further reduce

imports from sanctions-hit

tops the agenda of US Secretary of State

who flew into Kolkata today at the start of a three-day visit to India.

The US has been urging India and other countries to slash oil imports from Iran aimed at stepping up pressure on Tehran to comply with international demands over its nuclear programme.

India, which imports 80% of its crude oil and relies on Tehran for 12% of those imports, has said it needed to continue to buy Iranian oil to meet its domestic requirements. [Read: Hillary confirms US bounty on terror head Hafiz Saeed]

Though India has publicly not said it was aiming to cut back on oil imports from Iran, the country's top oil importers have been pushed to reduce Iranian oil imports by 15-20 per cent.

Crude imports from Iran fell to 18.5 million tons in 2010-11 from 21.2 million tons in 2009-10. Last fiscal (2011-12), Iranian oil imports dropped to less than 16 million tons. This year they may further come down to 14 million tons. [UPDATE: Hillary reveals shocker; says Ayman al-Zawahiri is in Pak]

India's top importers - Mangalore Refinery and Petrochemicals Ltd (MRPL) and Essar Oil will both cut Iranian oil imports this fiscal. MRPL plans to reduce Iranian oil buy to less than 100,000 barrels per day from 142,000 bpd while Essar Oil plans a 15% cut to 85,000 bpd from 100,000 bpd.

The US State Department said in March that 12 countries, including India and China, were at risk of sanctions because of purchases of Iranian oil.

US officials, who declined to be named, told the press travelling with Clinton that Washington's assessment is that India was working satisfactorily in this direction. "But we really need to receive assurances that they are going to continue to make good progress," they said.

PTI