India is to pay Iran $700 million to clear one-tenth of oil dues in the last week of September, the first payment this year ahead of easing of international sanctions against the Persian Gulf country.

The government has set up a cell to speed work and monitor the setting up of the Chabahar port in Iran within a deadline. The Jawaharlal Nehru Port Trust (JNPT) has nominated four officers for coordinating the work.

In its ships at Indian ports, Iran has offered Indian government-owned refineries nominal discounts in price as well as free deliver of oil. While free shipping alone could save Indian refiners about $1 per barrel in transportation cost, the discount in price would boost margins on processing Iranian oil.

Authorities at Iran's Bandar Abbas port are said to have demanded $5,00,000 from India to release the tanker Desh Shanti, which was carrying crude from Iraq. Desh Shanti was held to ransom by Iranian authorities — spearheaded by the dreaded Iranian Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC) — for 26 days.

Media reports indicate that Iran is not favourable to India's proposal for increase crude oil import from the Persian Gulf nation. This is because Iran does not import enough commodities from India to compensate for its rise in crude oil export to

A recent report called, 'Gas shortage in the GCC - How to Bridge the Gap', by global consultancy firm, Booz & Company, says gas shortage in the six resource-rich Gulf Cooperation Council (GCC) countries will become more evident 2015 as demand is on the rise and supply struggles to keep pace. Increasing power consumption, depleting oil fields, gas exploration and long-term gas export commitments have limited the local supply of gas in the region, the report says.

The Union Oil Minister Marpadi Veerappa Moily on August 27 said that to reduce the current account deficit (CAD), the Prime Minister Manmohan Singh has sought $25 billion cut in oil import bill. India is renewing imports of the fuel from Iran as unlike imports from other countries. It pays the Persian Gulf nation in rupees. India paid about $170 billion last fiscal for importing oil.

Petroleum Minister M Veerappa Moily informed in Rajya Sabha that Indian Oil Corp (IOC) agreed to import 1.2 million tonne crude oil from Iran in 2013-14 compared to 1.566 million tonne in the previous year. This represents a fall of over 23 per cent in crude oil import by IOC from the Persian Gulf nation. During April-June 2013, the firm imported 0.577 million tonne of oil from Iran. It may be noted that IOC is India's third

Media reports indicate that Iranian Foreign Minister Ali Akbar Salehi offered production sharing contracts (PSCs) to Indian the oil and gas exploration companies that are investing in the Persian gulf nation. The country's foreign minister is learnt to have made the offer during an India-Iran Joint Commission meeting with