India's MRL to Resume Oil Imports from Iran after 2 Years
TEHRAN (Tasnim) – Chennai Petroleum Corp. (MRL), a unit of India’s largest refiner, plans to resume crude oil imports from Iran after a two-year hiatus as insurers return to the market.
“This year, we plan to restart Iran oil purchases,” MRL Managing Director S. Venkataramana was quoted by Bloomberg as saying.
“We are already talking to the re-insurers for this, and we are getting positive responses so far,” he said.
Chennai Petroleum, controlled by Indian Oil Corp. (IOCL), plans to import about 300,000 metric tons of oil from Iran for the year ending in March 2015, he said.
Chennai Petroleum operates two refineries in southern India with a combined capacity of 11.5 million tons a year. The bigger of the two refineries at Manali, with capacity to process 10.5 million tons of oil annually, was built 45 years ago to use crude from Iran.
Indian Oil had a 51.9 percent interest in Chennai Petroleum as on June 30, while Naftiran Inter Trade Co., the Swiss-based subsidiary of National Iranian Oil Co., held 15.4 percent, according to the Bombay Stock Exchange website.
“We can buy 1 million tons a year from Iran, but because we will start imports in the latter half of the year, it may be about 0.3 million tons this year,” Venkataramana said. The refiner last imported Iranian oil in the year ended in March 2012.