No Indian firm exporting petrol to Iran, says Jitin Prasada

No Indian oil firm, including Reliance Industries, is exporting gasoline (petrol) to Iran, Minister of State for Petroleum and Natural Gas Jitin Prasada told Parliament today.

Besides RIL, state-owned Indian Oil Corp, Hindustan Petroleum Corp and Mangalore Refinery and Petrochemcials and private sector Essar Oil exported gasoline this fiscal, he said in a written reply to a question in the Rajya Sabha.

During April-December, gasoline was exported by these firms to Indonesia, Iran, Kenya, Mauritius, Mozambique, Nepal, Oman, Singapore, South Africa, Sri Lanka, Yemen and the UAE.

"Supply of gasoline to Iran was made only by RIL in April and May, 2009," he said. No gasoline was exported to Iran thereafter by any Indian company.

Asked if the US had raised objections to RIL supplying gasoline to Iran, he said, "The US Government has not raised the matter with the Government of India."

Prasada said the US Senate passed the Comprehensive Iran Sanctions and Divestment Bill on January 28 this year, which authorises the US President to apply the sanctions on foreign entities that invest in Iran's domestic refining sector or sell refined petroleum products to Iran.

"The Government of India has conveyed to the US that sanctions on Iran have proved to be counter-productive and that all differences with Iran should be resolved peacefully through dialogue and negotiation," he said.

The Bill passed in January also authorises the US President to apply sanctions under the Iran Sanctions Act of 1996 on foreign entities that provide supporting services for investment, construction and trade in energy sector (including brokering, insurance, underwriting and consulting).

It authorises the US Federal and State agencies to divest in any company that is engaged in Iran's energy sector and impose prohibition on federal procurement from any entity that supplies Iran with hardware and software that enables Iran to monitor, disrupt or restrict free speech on information flow.

The Bill also calls for closer scrutiny of export control of countries through which sensitive technologies of US origin are transshipped or diverted to Iran, Prasada said.

"The Bill also has a Sense of US Congress calling for sanctions against Iran's Central Bank under existing powers of the President," he added.