Essar’s Iran Oil Imports Decline

Essar Oil, a key Indian buyer of Iranian crude, imported 23% less oil from Tehran in December compared with the previous month, ship tracking data made available to Reuters show. The private refiner raised purchases from Latin America during the month and bought. Brazilian oil after a gap of nearly a year, the data showed. Essar Oil's overall shipments from Tehran rose 55%, at about 182,000 barrels per day in the first nine months of the contract year beginning April 1, 2016, the data also showed. India's oil imports from Iran surged to a record high in 2016 at about 473,000 bpd. Essar imported about 120,000 bpd of oil from Iran in December compared with 67,600 bpd a year ago. It shipped an average 168,300 bpd from Iran in 2016, about 69% higher than the previous year. Essar's total crude imports in December rose by about 45% to 448,900 bpd.