NIOC official: India paying oil debt

NIOC’s director for international affairs Mohsen Qamsari said India has deposited the money it owed to Iran for oil imports into a Central Bank of Iran’s (CBI) account abroad and now the CBI could transfer the money to Iran. According to Shana, Qamsari noted that India has paid 45 percent of the money in rupee and 55 percent in Euro adding under a previously arrangement made between CBI and Indian authorities the money will be transferred to CBI accounts inside the country in near future. Earlier Reuters had quoted Indian Oil Secretary Vivek Rae that the country was ready to pay $1.5 billion to Iran to clear part of a backlog of payments for shipments of oil following the partial easing of western sanctions on Tehran. In a Nov. 24 deal with six major powers, Iran won access to $4.2 billion in oil revenue from a number of countries that has been frozen abroad. The funds will be paid in eight transfers on a schedule that started with a $550 million payment by Japan on Feb. 1. South Korea is set to make two payments in March totalling $1 billion, banking sources said late February, and the next scheduled tranche of oil funds would come on April 10. "We are ready to make a payment as soon as banking modalities are worked out," Rae told Reuters. He confirmed a Reuters' report that Iran had sought $1.5 billion from India in back oil payments.