Essar Oil, the only private refiner in India that buys Iranian oil, has significantly raised imports from the nation in June, ahead of tighter western sanctions that came into effect from July, according to tanker discharge data made available to Reuters.
 

Essar, which recently expanded its Vadinar refinery in western Gujarat state to 400,000 barrels per day (bpd), returned to importing Omani crude in June, the data shows, after a gap of 29 months, as the complexity of its plant has also been increased to process heavy and ultra heavy grades.
 

The private refiner more than trebled monthly imports from Iran in June to 114,700 bpd -- and they were about 70 percent more than a year ago.

Essar is set to become the biggest Indian buyer from the Islamic Republic in July replacing Mangalore Refineries and Petrochemicals Ltd. 
 

MRPL's imports may be limited by insurance problems and it may get only one of the five aframax cargoes it planned to lift from Iran in July, sources have said.

 Essar got nearly 44 percent of its crude imports from Iran in January-June. Overall imports by Essar rose nearly 17 percent during January-June to 284,400 bpd, the data shows.

  

(source: Reuters)