India's Iran oil imports surge to highest in at least 15 yrs in Aug: source

India received about 576,000 barrels per day (bpd) of the Iranian oil in August, up about 10 percent from July, according to trade sources and ship arrival data, the paper added.

The August oil imports from Iran are likely a record although reliable data is available only back to 2001, the Indian paper said.

Iran used to be India's second-biggest oil supplier - a position now held by Iraq - before sanctions aimed at Tehran's nuclear programme began undercutting its petroleum trade, reports IRNA.

The sanctions were lifted in January, and in August, Iran's crude exports, excluding condensate, rose to near pre-sanctions levels at 2.11 million bpd, with loadings headed for India surpassing those for China, Tehran's top oil client, it added.

India's oil imports from Iran last month were nearly triple the 199,000 bpd taken in August a year ago, according to the tanker arrival data.

In April-August, the first five months of India's current fiscal year, Iran's share in its overall imports surged to 10.7 percent, its highest since 2010/11.

India's Iran oil purchases rose nearly 70 percent to 451,000 bpd over those five months from about 266,000 bpd in the same period a year ago, the data has shown.

In the first eight months of 2016, India's oil imports from Tehran rose 84 percent to about 395,000 bpd, the data showed, in comparison with 214,000 bpd a year ago.

Private refiner, Essar Oil, was the top Indian client of Iran in August, followed by Indian Oil Corp and Mangalore Refinery and Petrochemicals Ltd.

India, China, South Korea and Japan are the major customers of Iran's crude oil, India's Financial Express wrote.