Indian refiners will pay for Iranian crude oil through Turkey's Halkbank after MRPL made a test payment to end a US-inspired impasse that has built up over $5 billion of debts and prompted Iran to halt supplies making up 12 percent of India's demand.
State-run Mangalore Refinery and Petrochemicals Ltd (MRPL), Iran's biggest Indian customer, released a small payment in euros through Halkbank, two sources with direct knowledge of the matter said on Friday. "This is the first payment ... We hope this system will continue," said one of the sources, adding the payment has been made with involvement of Union Bank of India.
The source said payment from Essar Oil , the second biggest Indian client of Iran, is being processed. Other refiners would also pay in the next few days, potentially allowing flows to resume from India's second largest supplier of oil after Saudi Arabia. Iran halted supplies of 400,000 barrels per day (bpd) to Indian refiners for August after a failure to find a payments solution to replace a clearing mechanism that was scrapped in December 2010 by New Delhi under US pressure.
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