IOC May Partly Pay Pending Oil Dues to Iran This Month

Mumbai: India's top state-owned refiner Indian Oil Corp could pay a part of its oil import dues to Iran as early as this month, a senior company executive said on Thursday.

Indian refiners had got approval to pay Iran $1.4 billion in oil dues, Reuters reported earlier, in one of the first signs a nuclear deal with six major world powers is helping Tehran unlock frozen funds.

The company's finance director A.K. Sharma told reporters that while there was no immediate timeline for the payment, a partial payment could be possible this month.

Indian Oil has still to pay around $500 million to Iran, Mr Sharma said.

India, the world's fourth-largest oil consumer, has run up a $6.5 billion bill for Iranian oil that it has been largely unable to pay because banking channels were blocked by Western financial sanctions.