Hours after reports of a vessel carrying Iranian crude heading towards India, the ministry of ports, shipping and waterways said it did not know of any such development.
Mukesh Mangal, additional secretary at the shipping ministry, when asked about an Iranian oil ship moving towards India, replied that the government had “no specific information” on the vessel.
Ship tracking data had earlier suggested that India's first Iranian crude oil cargo since 2019 may be heading towards a port in Gujarat, PTI news agency reported.
Shipping vessel Ping Shun headed to Gujarat's Vadinar: Analyst Sumit Ritolia, lead research analyst for refining and modelling at commodity market analytic firm Kpler, had earlier suggested that the vessel Ping Shun was en route to Vadinar in Gujarat with 600,000 barrels of crude.
Imports from Iran had ceased from May, 2019 following US sanctions on Iranian oil tightening in 2018.
The US window for Iranian oil lifts on expires April 19. An estimated 95 million barrels of Iranian oil is on vessels on sea, PTI reported.
Meanwhile, Sujata Sharma, joint secretary at the ministry of petroleum and natural gas, said that India currently has “sufficient quantities of petrol and diesel available.”
