Reliance Industries Ltd, India's biggest oil refiner, said it is looking to buy more crude from Iran, as the company seeks to rebuild ties to benefit from shorter shipping distances.
The company had made small purchases from Iran in the current quarter and was currently engaged in talks for bigger supplies, indicating that it could also get into a long-term supply contract, said V Srikanth, Reliance's joint chief financial officer, Reuters reported.
"We have had engagements with Iran before the sanctions and they have grades of crude that are attractive to us from where we are," Srikanth said at a news conference on Friday.
India is set to import at least 400,000 barrels per day of Iranian oil, with refiners looking to ramp up purchases after the sanctions targeting Tehran ended in January, sources had told Reuters.
Iran was India's second biggest oil supplier before economic sanctions aimed at Iran's nuclear program hampered its trade relations. Now, Indian buyers are being drawn back to Iran in part by freight discounts that increase as more barrels are purchased. The comments came as Reliance posted its biggest quarterly profit in over eight years on better margins in the company's core refining and petrochemical business. Reliance, controlled by Mukesh Ambani, reported an estimate-topping net profit of $1.11 billion for the Jan.-March period—its highest quarterly profit since December 2007.
