New Delhi, Apr 23 (UNI) India is "adequately prepared" to deal with the impact of the US decision to end waiver for importing oil from Iran, the government said on Tuesday, and that it will work with other partner countries, including the US, to find "all possible ways" to protect its energy security and economic interests.
"Government has noted the announcement by the US Government to discontinue the Significant Reduction Exemption to all purchasers of crude oil from Iran," said the External Affairs Ministry.
"We are adequately prepared to deal with the impact of this decision... Government will continue to work with partner nations, including with the US, to find all possible ways to protect India's legitimate energy and economic security interests."
The Ministry of Petroleum and Natural Gas has also said that the government has put in place a "robust plan" to ensure that there is adequate supply of crude oil to Indian refineries from next month.
"There will be additional supplies from other major oil producing countries from different parts of the world," said Petroleum Minister Dharmendra Pradhan.
"Indian refineries are fully prepared without any problem to meet the national demand for petrol, diesel and other products in the country," Pradhan said on Twitter.
Last November, the US had granted so-called Significant Reduction Exceptions waivers to nations such as India, China, Japan, South Korea, Italy, Greece, Turkey and Taiwan that allowed them to continue their purchases of Iranian oil.
On Monday, Secretary of State Mike Pompeo asked these countries to stop buying from Tehran by May 1 or face possible sanctions.
"We are going to zero," Pompeo said of the waivers, adding that there would be no grace period for compliance.
"We will continue to enforce sanctions and monitor compliance. Any nation or entity interacting with Iran should do its diligence and err on the side of caution," he said.
Iran exports around 1.1 million barrels of crude oil a day, down from around 2.5 million barrels before Washington reimposed sanctions in November.
India has begun buying oil from the US.
UNI SRJ