India may win Iran sanctions waiver: IEA

India could yet be exempted from tighter US sanctions on buyers of Iranian crude, and New Delhi would like to be judged on the size of term deals with Tehran which begin in April, the International Energy Agency’s executive director told Reuters.

In a first public indication India is discussing a waiver to the sanctions, which it has rebuffed, Maria van der Hoeven said the country’s annual contracts were an unknown still to be considered.

“At the moment, India is not one of those with an exemption. The answer of India was that they have their contracts running from April to March.”

Reuters calculates India is likely to cut imports from Iran by more than 20 per cent in the new deals — in line with a benchmark 15-22 per cent set for Japan to secure its waiver.

“So that, for instance, is one of the ... things that has to be decided in the context of what is going to happen after April 1. It is one of the uncertainties that are there.”

The US has exempted Japan and 10 EU nations from financial sanctions because they have slashed purchases of Iranian oil, but Iran’s top customers — China and India — remain at risk of such steps.