Essar Oil's crude imports from Iran jumped to its highest level in 15 months in June when the private refiner shipped in about 73% more oil from Tehran compared to the previous month.
The company shipped in about 216,000 barrels per day of oil from Iran in June, compared to 52,200 bpd a year ago, according to tanker arrival data obtained from sources and assessed by Thomson Reuters Oil Analytics.
Supplies from Iran accounted for about 58.7% of Essar's overall shipments during the last month.
Essar imported about 99,200 bpd from Iran in January-June 2015, a decline of about 21.5% from a year earlier, the data showed, as average for the first half was dragged down by Indian refiners skipping purchases in March to meet the last fiscal year's target of 220,000 bpd.
India, the world's fourth biggest oil consumer and Iran's top client after China, received 283,900 bpd of oil from the OPEC member in June, a decline of about 23% from May but up about 70% from the same month last year.
India had steadily cut imports from Iran, as sanctions from the US and other western countries blocked payments and crippled shipping routes. Imports have come down from 21.20 million tons in 2009-10 to nearly 13 million tons in 2013-14.
Presently, only Indian Oil, Essar Oil and Mangalore Refinery & Petrochemicals are regular purchasers of Iranian oil.
