Essar Oil, the top Indian buyer of Iranian crude, shipped in about 132,000 barrels per day (bpd) of oil from Iran last month, a growth of about 8.3 percent from about 122,000 bpd a year ago, according to tanker arrival data obtained from trade sources and ship-tracking services on the Thomson Reuters terminal.

Although the Indian company imported about 47 percent less Iranian oil in September compared to August as the country's second biggest private refiner boosted purchases from Venezuela.

A group led Russian oil giant Rosneft earlier this month agreed to acquire 98 percent stake in Essar Oil and associated port and power plant for about $13 billion, including debt.  Rosneft may supply Venezuelan oil to Essar's Vadinar refinery after a deal to buy a stake in the Indian company is finalized, the Indian company's managing director L. K. Gupta told Reuters in August.

 Essar's oil imports from Venezuela trebled to about 211,000 barrels per day (bpd) last month from 67,000 bpd in August, the data showed.

Iran's share in overall imports by Essar Oil in the January-September period rose to about 46 percent while that of Venezuela rose to about 45 percent. Last year during the same period the two nations accounted for about a third each of Essar's overall oil imports.

(Source: Reuters)