India plans guarantee for refineries importing oil from Iran

India is reportedly seeking to devise a mechanism to provide a state guarantee to refineries importing oil from Iran, whose energy sector has been targeted by sanctions, Press TV reported. India's Finance Ministry decided to consider the "facility/sovereign guarantee" on July 31, Reuters quoted an industry source in New Delhi as saying on Thursday.
The refineries had previously been unable to carry out imports from Iran as international insurance agencies are barred from covering deals with Tehran due to the sanctions against the Islamic Republic.
Iran has also previously offered to provide sovereign guarantees of its own for tankers shipping its crude oil to India.
The offer made to India by Iran's Ministry of Industries, Mines and Trade covers liabilities between $50 million and $1 billion per incident through sovereign guarantee and the government special fund.
India is among Asia's major importers of energy and relies on the Islamic Republic of Iran to meet part of its energy demand.
The U.S. and its Western allies suspect Iran of developing a nuclear weapon - something that Iran denies. The Islamic Republic has on numerous occasions stated that it does not seek to develop nuclear weapons, using nuclear energy for medical researches instead.
Iran has stressed that as a committed member of the International Atomic Energy Agency and a signatory to the Non-Proliferation Treaty it is entitled to develop nuclear technology for peaceful purposes.

© Trend News Agency 2013

Source:  http://tinyurl.com/kmnnmn3