)
Mangalore Refinery and Petrochemicals Ltd is looking at resuming crude oil imports from Iran next month, company's Managing Director P P Upadhya said today.
MRPL, which imported 3.9 million tonnes of crude oil from Iran in 2012-13, has not imported any oil from the Persian Gulf nation following insurance issues.
"We are planning to restart oil imports from Iran," he said.
MRPL and Hindustan Petroleum Corp Ltd stopped imports from Iran in April as insurance companies declined to extend full coverage to refiners processing Iranian crude.
At the beginning of the fiscal, MRPL had budgeted for 4 million tonnes of crude oil from Iran out of its total requirement of 15.5 million tonnes.
"I cannot say what will be the volume of import in full fiscal," Upadhya said.
India's largest insurer GIC has offered up to Rs 500 crore in reinsurance coverage to the MRPL refinery. With India winning US sanctions waiver to continue import of crude oil from Iran, reinsurance coverage would not be difficult.
"We have taken a calculated risk (to resume oil imports from Iran)," he said.
Private refiner Essar Oil continues to buy Iranian crude.
For 2013-14, MRPL plans to import 2.75 million tonnes from Saudi Arabia and another 2.5 million tonnes from Abu Dhabi. Kuwait will give 1.35 million tonnes while 0.55 million tonnes will come from Oman and West Africa each.
It will get 1.7 million tonnes of Mumbai High oil produced by its parent Oil and Natural Gas Corp (ONGC) and about 0.40 million tonnes from Mangala oilfields of Cairn.
MRPL plans to buy 1.15 million tons of oil from the spot market.
