India, on Saturday, denied reports of payment problems with Iran towards its imported crude oil and it made it clear that there are no financial obstacles and Indian refiners still receive oil imports through various suppliers across the world.
The Ministry of Petroleum and Natural Gas declared that an Iranian crude shipment was diverted to China instead of India because of payment-related issues, which was posted on X. This was explained when an oil tanker, which had initially indicated its destination as Vadinar in Gujarat, rerouted halfway along its journey to China.
The ministry clarified that these cargo destination adjustments are normal occurrences in the international oil trade, which are influenced by commercial optimisation and flexibility in operations. It has underlined that Indian oil organisations are free to acquire crude in a broad spectrum of sources depending on market circumstances and strategic needs.
The ministry said that India takes in the crude oil of approximately 40 nations and refiners are fully free to make sourcing choices; nonetheless, with the instability in the supply chains in the Middle East, Indian refiners have effectively managed to meet their demands including the Iranian supplies.
Ship-tracking company Kpler, said that the Aframax tanker Ping Shun, which previously reported India as its destination, subsequently reported Dongying in China. Nonetheless, authorities reaffirmed that these reroutings do not reflect the presence of a payment problem.
The government asserted that rumours that the diversion is due to financial constraint are unwarranted and ascertained once again the stability of the arrangement of the crude imports in India.