Essar Oil will continue to import crude from Iran

Essar Oil, which sources three million barrels per month of crude from Iran, today said it will continue to import crude from Iran in the coming days.

"Crude supplies from Iran is normal and there is no disruption. We will continue to import crude oil from Iran in the coming days," Essar Oil's Chief Executive Officer & MD Naresh Nayyar told reporters here.

India's crude oil supplies from Iran were under threat after the Reserve Bank of India (RBI) in December last year scrapped a long-standing payment mechanism used to pay for Iranian crude imports. The two countries then made temporary arrangements for payments and were negotiating a new payment system.

India imports 12-million barrels of crude oil every month from Iran.

Nayyar said the company's retail business is unique in the country and will continue ramping-up its network in the coming days. Presently, the company operates 1,381 retail fuel outlets while 254 outlets are under construction.

"We are setting up outlets under the 100% franchise basis and it is doing well. We will continue to ramp up our retail networks in future," he said.

Nayyar said the government should give a subsidy to private sector refiners to run their retail business smoothly.

"We have been requesting the Government to give subsidy to private sector refiners. But the Government has not taken any initiative," he said.

The government subsidises state-run retailers for selling diesel and cooking fuels at controlled prices.