NEW DELHI, April 6 (UPI) -- Indian oil conglomerate Reliance Industries announced its decision to abandon a contract to import oil from Iran as Western economic pressure mounts.
Washington and its partners in London, Paris and Berlin are drafting tough new sanctions targeting Iran for its controversial nuclear program, which Tehran insists is for civilian use.
U.S. lawmakers, meanwhile, are pushing for new measures that would hit oil and gas traders working with Iran. Russian crude producer Lukoil announced in March that it was suspending work on an oil project in Iran because of international pressure on energy companies doing business there.
Indian conglomerate Reliance Industries, meanwhile, said it would not renew its contracts with Iran for the 2010 fiscal year. Sources to the Economic Times of India said it was unclear if the decision was related to disputes over price or because of Western pressure.
Hojjatollah Ghanimifard, the deputy director of the National Iranian Oil Co., told the semiofficial Fars News Agency that restrictions on Iranian oil would wreak havoc on the world economy.
"Any disruption in the supply of crude oil ... will lead to the intensification and prolongation of the economic recession" in consumer countries, he said.
