Essar Oil, a key Indian client of Iranian crude, shipped in about 155,200 barrels per day (bpd) of oil from Iran in November, according to tanker arrival data obtained from trade sources and ship-tracking services.
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.
