India's oil imports from Iran fell 41.5% in October from a year ago to the lowest in seven months, according to tanker arrival data obtained by Reuters, as state-run refiner MRPL cut imports due to a maintenance shutdown. India, Iran's top customer after China, took 181,200 barrels per day of oil from Tehran in October, down 22.3% from September, according to the data and a report compiled by Thomson Reuters Oil Research and Forecasts, TradeArabia reported. Mangalore Refinery and Petrochemicals Ltd, which operates a 300,000-barrels-per-day coastal refinery in southern India, is a key Indian oil client of Iran. The refiner had shut nearly 46% of its crude processing capacity for about a month from Sept. 18 for planned maintenance. MRPL planned fewer purchases of Iran oil for last month, as its biggest crude distillation unit was shut, a company source said. While MRPL received about 45,000 bpd Iranian oil in October, private refiner Essar Oil took about 136,300 bpd, the data showed. India, the world's fourth-biggest oil consumer, bought 21.8% less Iranian crude for January-October at about 212,600 bpd, the data also showed.
