News Desk: Bowing to the US pressure, India has decided to reduce crude oil import from Iran by over 11% this fiscal year to 15.5 million tons. Tehran could react strongly for this move.


Minister of State for Petroleum and Natural Gas R P N Singh while replying in the Rajya Sabha on Tuesday said that India, which imports 80 per cent of its crude oil and depends on Tehran for 12 per cent of those imports, has shipped 18.50 million tons of oil from Iran in 2011-12.


The move comes against the backdrop of the US pressure on India to cut oil import from Iran. Recently, during the visit of US Secretary of State Hillary Clinton to India, she had hoped to see India to cut oil imports from Iran and keep pressure on Tehran to prevent the country from having nuclear weapons.


Earlier, the government had not agreed to reduce oil imports from Iran as the country is playing an important role to strengthen India's energy security.


However, India's top imports have been asked to reduce import of oil from Iran. India had imported 18.50 million tons and 17.44 million tons oil from Iran during the period 2010-11 and 2011-12 respectively.


Japan along with 10 European countries has already reduced the oil imports from Iran by 15-22% following the US sanction. But China and India, which are two big importers, were left from the US sanction.

Follow us on Twitter & Be our Fan on Facebook.