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The figure shows an eye-caching growth of 3½-fold compared to the figure for the same month last year, which was about 34,500 bpd, reported Reuters.

According to the report, the company imported 250,320 bpd of crude oil from Iran in October.

Essar Oil took in 172,800 bpd of crude oil from Iran in the first 11 months of 2016, which indicates a rise of 68.8 percent compared to the for the same period in 2015 which was 102,500 bpd.

Iran was the main exporter of crude oil to the company during the 11-month period followed by Venezuela and Mexico with 149,500 bpd and 18,800 bpd respectively.

India's oil imports from Iran fell 19 percent in November from a record high the month earlier.

India's shipments from Tehran, were about 620,000 bpd oil in November. That was down from 765,500 bpd in October, but well above 138,100 bpd in November 2016.

The November drop came before OPEC members and other global producers agreed to cut output in a bid to bolster weak oil prices. Iran, a member of the Organization of Petroleum Exporting Countries (OPEC), had been initially hesitant to cut production, but as Saudi Arabia — OPEC's largest producer — agreed to take on the lion's share of reductions, the landmark deal was agreed at the end of last month.

Supplies from Iran to India more than doubled in January-November to 468,900 bpd from 205,900 bpd in the same period last year, the data showed.

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A Treasury Office of Foreign Assets Control (OFAC) statement said the changes to the Iranian Transactions and Sanctions Regulations (ITSR) would be effective as of December 23, 2016.

"OFAC is adopting a final rule to amend the licensing provisions of the ITSR to expand the scope of medical devices and agricultural commodities generally authorized for export or re-export to Iran," said the statement.

The Treasury's new Iran regulations also include new or expanded authorizations for training Iranian healthcare professionals on using and maintaining medical devices.

It added that the changes would be implemented "in response to feedback from regulated public regarding improving patient safety, provide new or expanded authorizations relating to training, replacement parts, software and services related to the operation, maintenance, and repair of medical devices, and items that are broken or connected to product recalls or other safety concerns".

The move, as explained, could allow Americans to train Iranians and is already drawing praise as a sign that the administration of US President Barack Obama was 'breaking a taboo' toward Tehran.

"It's a pretty big deal moving forward," Tyler Cullis of the National Iranian American Council told Al-Monitor.

"It allows Iran to reach the full benefit of the medical devices that OFAC, up until this point, has allowed to be exported there," Erich Ferrari, a sanctions lawyer who represents medical device makers' interests before OFAC, also told Al-Monitor.

"A lot of these devices are more complicated, and there's just a dearth of non-US personnel available to provide that type of training."

He predicted that the Trump administration would have little incentive to overturn the new OFAC regulations on Iran.

"It's all in furtherance of humanitarian trade," he said. "And there's congressional will for this type of trade to be unimpeded."

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