Indian refiner Reliance resumes gasoline exports to Iran

Privately-owned Indian refiner Reliance Industries Ltd. has resumed gasoline sales to Iran after a two-month hiatus. Reliance sold three cargoes of 95 RON gasoline, each consisting 35,000 million tons, for April, loading from the town of Sikka in Gujarat, India at premiums of about US$62 per million tons to the Mean of Platts Arab Gulf naphtha assessments on a delivered basis into Bandar Abbas. The cargoes , media reports said, were understood to have been sold on a spot basis to Iran’s state-owned National Iranian Oil Co. rather than through framework contractual agreements. Its last contractual volumes to Iran, comprising two to three shipments, were loaded in January. In early January, Reliance reportedly decided to stop supplying gasoline to Iran after U.S. Congressmen asked the U.S. Export-Import Bank to stop all loans to the company until it halted sales to the country. Reliance’s resumption of gasoline exports to Iran follows a shift in the U.S. policy in its dealings and engagement with the country. (March 29, 2009)