Essar Oil, the top Indian buyer of Iranian crude, imported about 12 percent more oil from Iran in December compared with the previous month, tanker arrival data made available to Reuters shows.
Essar Oil's overall shipments from Tehran rose about 36.4 percent at about 117,000 barrels per day (bpd) in the first nine months of the contract year beginning April 1, 2014 the data also showed.
India imported 42 percent more Iranian oil last year over 2013 levels as its refiners increased purchases to take advantage of an easing in sanctions targeting Tehran's nuclear program.
Essar imported 175,300 bpd oil from Tehran in December compared with 54,200 bpd a year ago, the data showed. It shipped an average 129,200 bpd from Iran in 2014, about 59 percent more than the previous year, the data showed. Its total crude imports in December surged 18 percent to 373,300 bpd, the data showed.
In 2014, it imported about 6.8 percent more oil compared with a year earlier, the data showed.