Essar Oil, the top Indian buyer of Iranian crude, imported about 86 percent more Iranian oil in October compared to a year ago, according to tanker arrival data obtained from trade sources and ship-tracking services on the Thomson Reuters terminal.

The company's crude purchases from Latin America in October rose 3.6 percent from a year ago, the data showed. A group led Russian oil giant Rosneft earlier this month agreed to acquire a 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 shipped in about 250,000 barrels per day (bpd) of oil from Iran last month, a growth of about 89.5 percent from about 132,000 bpd a year ago, the data showed.

(Source: Reuters)