TEHRAN, July 19 (UPI) -- Tehran could halt August deliveries of crude oil to India if New Delhi doesn't find a way to settle its outstanding debt, the Iranian Oil Ministry said.
New Delhi owes Tehran roughly $5 billion for oil delivered this year. India is getting Iranian crude on credit while it explores payment options.
New Delhi had moved cash through German bank Europaeisch-Iranische Handelsbank AG to buy oil from Iran, one of the top crude suppliers to India.
EIH received euros for the Iranian crude only when Indian importers issued notes saying the money wouldn't be used for sanctioned goods. Officials in the U.S. Treasury Department said that wasn't enough and the German bank said early this year that it stopped the payments.
India had imported about 12 million barrels of oil per month from Iran.
An unidentified source told the semiofficial Fars News Agency in Iran that Tehran was considering cutting August oil shipments to India unless New Delhi can find a way to pay off the debt. Iran, the source added, isn't interested in severing ties with India completely, however.
Banking officials in Tehran suggested Monday that negotiations were under way with authorities in New Delhi. Tehran had suggested in the past that its energy relationship with New Delhi was on solid ground in terms of crude.
