An Indian-flagged oil tanker, Kashimasan, docked close to an offloading terminal at Butcher Island, off the Mumbai coast, on April 1.
| Photo Credit: AFP
The government’s acknowledgement on Saturday (April 4, 2026) that it’s procuring oil and LNG from Iran after a niche of seven years has sparked hope for Indian merchants that it might take into account restoring trade with Iran and its curiosity within the Chabahar port, whilst U.S. sanction deadlines loom once more in April. The U.S.’s non permanent sanctions waiver for Russian oil particularly for India expires on Sunday (April 5), whereas one other normal waiver for all nations will expire on April 11. In addition, the U.S. waiver for Iranian oil will expire on April 19, and its six-month waiver for India’s stake in Chabahar port ends on April 26.
On Friday (April 3), the Ministry of External Affairs mentioned it “remains engaged” with the U.S. and all events on the difficulty of Chabahar, whereas officers expressed hope that Washington would take into account extending the waivers on oil, provided that the battle in West Asia continues, with no finish in sight.
However, there’s no readability on whether or not the government will reject U.S. President Trump’s calls for if the U.S. decides to re-impose sanctions.
Iran’s continued restrictions on the Hormuz Strait are a giant concern, say exporters, provided that greater than 80% of India’s Basmati exports are destined for West Asian nations and numerous export consignments are at the moment stranded within the Strait, caught in transit at ports or on the excessive seas, main to heavy monetary losses for them.
In a letter to Commerce and Industry Minister Piyush Goyal, the Punjab Rice Millers Exporters Association urged the government to organize a barter settlement with Iran, exchanging Iranian crude oil for Indian rice shipments. “This one significant step would ease India’s oil crisis and revive our traditional trade with Iran,” affiliation director Ashok Sethi informed The Hindu, including that the exporters are urging the government to make use of the “Rupee payment mechanism”, a corpus fund managed by way of UCO Bank arrange in 2012 for commodities trade. He added that this would assist farmers clear the shares of Basmati rice from the earlier crop season forward of the brand new kharif sowing season from May.
If activated, the mechanism would additionally assist India pay for crude oil from Iran, though at current Indian refiners usually are not taking very giant portions of it, given the excessive costs, low availability and the necessity to recalibrate refineries for it.
In 2019, the Modi government ended imports of Iranian and Venezuelan oil due to alleged U.S. stress, and started to scale back imports of Russian oil in November 2025 due to the U.S.’s 25% penalty tariff, which was eliminated in February 2026. After Mr. Trump threatened one other 25% tariff for any trade with Iran, MEA officers identified that these have been at minimal ranges of $1.6 billion in 2024, dropping from about $15.7 billion in 2014. The government additionally pulled out all employees and pay as you go its funding dedication of $120 million to Iran in November 2025 for the Chabahar port improvement undertaking, indicating it was ready to finish the undertaking due to the U.S. sanctions menace.
“On this particular issue (Chabahar port), the sanctions waiver that was given to us is valid till April 26, 2026. The Government of India remains engaged with all concerned in order to address the implications of these developments,” MEA spokesperson Randhir Jaiswal mentioned at a briefing.
Meanwhile, the Ministry of Petroleum and Natural Gas has harassed that selections on shopping for oil have been commercially pushed, denying the U.S. claims that it “allowed” India to purchase Russian oil by issuing the waivers in order to preserve oil costs low. Despite that, the value of oil has remained excessive, at greater than $110 per barrel.
“Amid Middle East supply disruptions, Indian refiners have secured their crude oil requirements, including from Iran; and there is no payment hurdle for Iranian crude imports as per some rumours being circulated,” the PNG ministry mentioned on Saturday (April 4), including that India now imports crude oil from over 40 nations. All eyes are actually on whether or not the imports will proceed, even when the U.S. snaps again any of its sanctions in April.
(With inputs from Saptparno Ghosh)
Published – April 05, 2026 05:24 pm IST
