Industry Odisha Bureau, Jul 9: When India was gearing up to resume its crude oil imports from Iran soon after Trump-led US regime reportedly lifted sanctions against Iran following the June month’s peace deal formally inked, the US President’s reported declaration yesterday to annul the peace deal as well as the sanctions-waiver has once again pushed India into a catch-22 situation.
As per international media reports, “Ahead of the NATO Summit, US President Donald Trump on Wednesday spoke in Ankara that he had no interest in engaging further with Iran signalling that the diplomatic route created by the June 18 Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) had effectively collapsed as well as end the sanctions-waiver on Iranian energy supplies.”
Meanwhile, the US Central Command (CENTCOM) reportedly claimed to have “hit more than 80 targets on July 7 retaliating to Iran’s alleged attacks on commercial vessels in the Strait of Hormuz.”
The US CENTCOM also reportedly claimed to have targeted “Iran’s air defence systems, command-and-control networks, coastal radar sites, anti-ship missile capabilities and more than 60 Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps boats.”
Notably, the US Treasury Department’s Office of Foreign Assets Control had formally issued “a 60-day waiver on sanctions on June 22 and allowed production, sale and transport of Iranian crude and petroleum products soon after the US-Iran peace deal’s MoU was inked on June 17-18.”
Even though the Indian oil refiners have not yet reportedly resumed importing crude oil from Iran since they are reportedly waiting and watching for a long-term waiver, the state-owned refiners were reportedly optimistic following the US-Iran peace deal as Iran used to offer India a lucrative “deferred payments and longer credit periods” prior to the US-imposed sanctions.
As per media reports, “India imports about 90% of its crude oil requirements, while 60–70% used to pass through the Iran-controlled Strait of Hormuz when the West Asia situation was normal prior to the US-Iran crisis broke out on February 28 this year.”
In case of a renewed escalation and the Hormuz hurdle yet again takes place, India would suffer once again, because “a rise of $1 per barrel of crude oil for a year may lead to a rise of Rs 18,000 crore in India’s oil import bill since India’s crude oil import bill was around $123 billion in fiscal year 2025-26 (FY26)”, media reports stated.
