NEW DELHI – India is considering several options to settle its oil import bills with Iran, including paying in rupees, a top central bank official said Monday, as the South Asian nation maintained its stance of continuing oil trade with Tehran. "There are different [payment] options which are being evaluated," Reserve Bank of India Deputy Governor H.R. Khan told reporters in New Delhi, without disclosing the other possible options. "Oil imports are continuing," he added. The Indian central bank in December 2010 disbanded a payment mechanism that the U.S. had said could be used by Tehran to finance its alleged nuclear weapons program. Since July last year, refiners such as Mangalore Refinery & Petrochemicals Ltd. and Indian Oil Corp. have been routing their payments through Turkey's Halkbank for supplies from Iran, which is the second-largest supplier of crude oil to India. The payments through Turkey could also now get disrupted as the U.S. and Europe have imposed sanctions on Iran to block its oil trade and deprive it of a key revenue source. New Delhi however says it will continue with oil imports from Iran as the terms of trade are favorable. India's oil minister said this month that the country will only abide by United Nations sanctions and not those imposed by any individual country.
WSJ
