Indian Oil, BPCL, Adani top bidders for city gas licences
State-owned fuel retailers IOC and BPCL as well as billionaire Gautam Adani’s group were the top bidders for gas retailing licences in the country’s biggest city gas distribution (CGD) bid round. Of the 86 cities offered for retailing of CNG to automobiles and piped cooking gas to households in the 9th CGD bid round, IOC bid for 34 cities on its own and another 20 in partnership with Adani Gas Ltd, according to final bid information provided by the Petroleum and Natural Gas Regulatory Board (PNGRB). Adani Gas on its own bid for 32 cities. Bharat Gas Resources Ltd, a unit of Bharat Petroleum Corp Ltd (BPCL), bid for as many as 53 cities while state-owned gas utility GAIL India Ltd’s retailing arm, GAIL Gas Ltd, put in offers for 34 cities. Gujarat-based Torrent Gas Pvt Ltd bid for 31 cities while Gujarat Gas Ltd put in offers for 21 areas. Petronet LNG Ltd, India’s largest liquefied natural gas (LNG) importer, sought to foray into CGD business by bidding for the licence in seven cities. Indraprastha Gas Ltd, which retails CNG in the national capital region, put in bids for 11 cities. According to PNGRB, a total of 400 bids were received for the 86 permits on offer. As many as eight cities received single bids. Only Indian Oil Corp bid for Aurangabad in Bihar and Rewa in Madhya Pradesh. Similarly, only Adani Gas offered for Balasore in Odisha; GAIL Gas for Gangan in Odisha; Bharat Gas Resources Ltd’s for Bidar in Karnataka and Amethi in Uttar Pradesh; IOC-Adani combine’s for Allahabad in Uttar Pradesh, and Gujarat Gas’ bid for Narmada in Gujarat. The highest number of 15 bids were received for Srikakulam-Visakhapatnam-Vizianagarm districts. Bidding for the biggest CGD licensing round closed on July 10. 174 districts in 22 states and union territories were clubbed into 86 permits in the bid round. Essel Infraprojects Ltd has put in a total of seven bids. Other bidders included Mahanagar Gas Ltd, H-Energy, Unison ENviro Pvt Ltd, IMC Ltd Assam Gas, Think Gas Investments Pte Ltd, AG&P LNG Marketing Pte Ltd, IRM Energy Pvt Ltd and Enertech Fuel Solutions Pvt Ltd. PNGRB had on July 10 stated that while it had earlier said that bids would be finalised by October, it would try to expedite the process. “Once awarded, it is envisaged that this initiative would help in creating a robust infrastructure by bringing investment of about Rs 70,000 crore, generate employment and play a significant role in achieving the shift towards a gas-based economy, with natural gas as the next-generation, cheaper and environment friendly fossil fuel,” it had said. The GAs cover 24 per cent of the country’s area and 29 per cent of its population. The government is targeting to raise the share of natural gas in primary energy basket to 15 per cent, from 6.2 per cent at present, within a few years. The bid round is also aimed at meeting Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s target of giving piped cooking gas connection to 1 crore households, roughly triple the current size, by 2020. Prior to the 9th round, 91 GAs were awarded to firms like Indraprastha Gas Ltd and GAIL Gas Ltd, which are serving 240 million population, 42 lakh domestic consumers and 31 lakh CNG vehicles. Of these, 56 GAs were awarded through bidding rounds and the rest on government nomination. The 9th bid round was being held on changed parameters after one paisa bids spoilt the initial auction rounds. Bidders have been asked to quote the number of CNG stations to be set up and the number of domestic cooking gas connections to be given in the first eight years of operation. In the previous eight rounds, bidders were asked to quote only the tariff for the pipeline that carries gas within the city limits. The bidding criteria did not include the rate at which an entity would sell CNG to automobiles or piped natural gas to households using the same pipeline network, leading to companies offering one paisa as the tariff to win licenses. In the new guidelines, maximum weightage of 50 per cent has been given to the number of piped gas connections proposed in eight years from the date of authorisation, as compared to 30 per cent earlier. The number of CNG dispensing stations proposed to be set up has been assigned 20 per cent weightage. Length of the pipeline to be laid in the GA and the tariff proposed for city gas and Compressed Natural Gas (CNG) has been assigned 10 per cent weightage each. Also, a floor tariff of Rs 30 for city gas and Rs 2 per kg for CNG has been put in order to deter bidders from quoting unviable tariff of 1 paisa per unit. Jakeem Grant Womens Jersey
Oil prices mixed as producers adding more oil while US gasoline stocks drop
Oil prices were mixed on Thursday as the market struggled to digest signs of strong gasoline demand in the United States, the world’s biggest consumer of the fuel, with a statement from oil producers that they are putting more crude on the market. Brent crude futures fell 11 cents, or 0.2 per cent, to $72.79 a barrel at 0401 GMT. West Texas Intermediate (WTI) crude futures climbed 6 cents, or 0.1 per cent, to $68.82. Both benchmarks rose by 1 percent on Wednesday after inventory data from the U.S. Energy Information Administration reported on Wednesday U.S. gasoline stockpiles fell along with supplies of distillate fuels. Motor fuel demand also rose from the week before and was up from a year earlier. However, the EIA also reported U.S. oil production reached a record 11 million barrels per day (bpd). The United States has added nearly 1 million bpd in production since November, thanks to rapid increases in shale drilling. Also, a meeting of members of the Organization of the Petroleum Exporting Countries (OPEC) and non-OPEC producer monitoring their supply pact reported on Wednesday that compliance with the agreement has declined, meaning more oil is available to the market. The bullish tone sparked by the gasoline data is unlikely to last, said Stephen Innes, head of trading APAC at brokerage OANDA. “President Trump is doing everything in his power to lower gasoline prices,” he said. “With Russia quick to offer the President a supply olive branch and Saudi Arabia mainly in his back pocket when it comes to increasing their supply, its challenging to see (the) gasoline numbers turning the bearish market’s tide,” he said. Gasoline inventories fell by 3.2 million barrels last week, while distillate stockpiles, which include diesel and heating oil, dropped by 371,000 barrels, the EIA said on Wednesday. A Reuters poll taken before the data release had forecast that gasoline stocks would be unchanged and distillate stockpiles would show a build of around 900,000 barrels. A sharp jump in crude oil inventories in the United States also added to the bearish tone in the market. U.S. crude stocks rose by 5.8 million barrels last week, compared with a forecast of a decline of 3.6 million barrels. Oil markets have fallen over the last week as Saudi Arabia and other members OPEC member and Russia have increased production and as some supply disruptions have eased. OPEC and non-OPEC’s compliance with oil output curbs has declined to around 120 percent in June from 147 percent in May, two sources familiar with the matter told Reuters on Wednesday. Joonas Donskoi Womens Jersey
Cabinet cuts tax burden on ONGC, OIL
The Cabinet has curtailed the tax burden on state-run Oil and Natural Gas Corp and Oil India in some of the old production contracts, allowed gas producers in the North-East to charge market rates, and extended tax incentives to contractors of a few old small fields. These measures will contribute towards ease of doing business in the exploration and production sector and help raise the oil and gas output in the country, oil minister Dharmendra Pradhan said after the Cabinet meeting. In six pre-NELP exploration blocks, ONGC and OIL had traditionally borne the full burden of royalty and cess, including share of JV partners. But the Cabinet has now allowed the two state firms to bring down their liability to the extent of their respective participating interests in these blocks, leaving partners such as Hindustan Oil, GSPC, and Essar Oil to bear their respective share of royalty and cess. Full burden of taxes on state firms had made state firms reluctant to invest in these fields, resulting in declining output. These statutory levies have also been made cost recoverable with prospective effect for these fields. The government has extended the exploration period by two years and appraisal by one year in operational blocks in the North-East given the geographical and logistical challenges there. Besides, natural gas from discoveries in the North-East that hadn’t begun producing on July 1 this year can be sold at market rates, a benefit currently available to gas from deep sea. ONGC, Oil India, Jubilant, Hindustan Oil and Essar Oil could benefit from this move. The government has also extended tax benefit under Section 42 of the Income-Tax Act prospectively to 13 operational contracts signed for pre-NELP discovered fields. This is likely to benefit GSPC, Sun Petrochem, Hindustan Oil and Selan Exploration. Sec 42 allows companies to claim 100% of expenditure incurred under a production sharing contract as tax deductible to compute taxable income in same year. Jaquiski Tartt Authentic Jersey
Renegotiated Gazprom LNG deal to save India up to Rs 95 billion, says Dharmendra Pradhan
India’s renegotiated gas import deal with Russia’s Gazpromwill save between Rs 85 billion and Rs 95 billion over the contract period ending 2040, Oil Minister Dharmendra Pradhan said on Wednesday. State-owned gas utility GAIL India had in January taken advantage of the Russian company’s inability to deliver liquefied natural gas (LNG) from the previously agreed Schtokman project in the Barents Sea, to renegotiate price agreed in 2012. In a written reply in the Rajya Sabha, Pradhan said the first cargo of Russian natural gas under the long-term contract between GAIL India and Gazprom Marketing & Trading Singapore (GMTS) was received on June 4. He said: “GAIL and Gazprom successfully re-negotiated the long-term LNG Sale and Purchase Agreement reflecting the current global gas market dynamics. The renegotiated price, compared to earlier contract price, will result in saving of approximately Rs 85 billion (crude oil at USD 50 per barrel) or Rs 90 billion (crude oil at USD 60 per barrel) or Rs 95 billion (crude oil at USD 70 per barrel) for the years 2018 to 2040.” Without giving specific details, Pradhan said the gas price was negotiated depending on many factors like project location, duration of contract and pricing formula. GAIL renegotiated the terms of the 20-year deal to import 2.5 million tons a year of LNG, including price and volume ramp up. The contracted volume has been lowered from 2.5 million tons to 0.5 million tons in the first year, 2018-19; 0.75 million tons in 2019-20 and 1.5 million tons in the third year 2020-21. The contract period has been extended by three years to accommodate the supplies not taken in initial years as well as getting an additional 2 million tons over-and-above the 50 million tons it had agreed to take in 2012 over the 20 year contract period. India has been making the most of its position as one of the world’s biggest energy consumers to strike better bargains for its companies. Last year, India got US energy major Exxon Mobil Corp to lower the price of 1.5 million tons a year of LNG from Gorgon project in Australia, saving Rs 40 billion in import bill. Pradhan said India currently has four operational LNG import terminals at Dahej and Hazira in Gujarat, Dabhol in Maharashtra and Kochi in Kerala with a total LNG import capacity 27.5 million tons per annum. After regasification, the imported LNG is distributed to industries and domestic consumers through existing pipeline networks, he said. Ricky Wagner Authentic Jersey
India offers incentives to state-owned oil and gas firms
Oil and Natural Gas Corp Ltd and Oil India Ltd will pay royalty and cess tax only to the extent of their equity holding in oil and gas blocks given to them before 1999, Oil Minister Dharmendra Pradhan said on Wednesday after a cabinet meeting. The companies had to pay 100 percent royalty and cess tax from the blocks under the earlier production sharing contract, making it a big disincentive to invest in production growth of the blocks, Pradhan said. Pradhan said the cabinet on Wednesday also extended the time period given to oil and gas companies to develop hydrocarbon blocks in the north eastern part of India. Production from these blocks will be linked to market prices of natural gas, the minister said. Pradhan said the government also decided to give tax exemption on capital spending on oil and gas blocks given before 1999, when India’s first bidding round was kicked off. It increased the number of days to announce force majeure due to a crisis on an oil and gas block located in a challenging region from seven days to 14 days, the minister said. Pradhan said these incentives will help the two state-owned companies invest in increasing production of oil and gas. Kansas City Chiefs Authentic Jersey
Essar-Rosneft deal: TDP accuses Centre of causing loss to exchequer
The Telugu Desam Party (TDP) accused the Narendra Modi government of causing a revenue loss to the government by camouflaging a deal entered into between private firm Essar Oil and Russian energy giant Rosneft as a government-to-government transaction. The accusation by the TDP, which was part of the ruling NDA at the Centre until a few months ago, comes days before Parliament takes up for discussion the party’s no-confidence motion against the Modi government. Cherukuri Kutumba Rao, a senior TDP leader and Andhra Pradesh State Planning Board vice chairman, claimed that no capital gains tax was paid in India on the transaction, part of which was executed here and the rest abroad. He also demanded that the government order a probe into the matter. Under the Essar Oil deal, Rosneft and its partners had acquired India’s second-largest refinery, largest network of private petrol pumps, a 1,000MW power plant and the Vadinar port and oil terminal for $12.9 billion. The deal was originally signed in October 2016 after Prime Minister Modi and Russian President Vladimir Putin met at a summit in Goa. Rao alleged that while the agreement for selling a 49% stake was entered into in India, transactions pertaining to sale of another 49% holding in Essar Oil took place overseas and the money changed hands abroad. Grady Jarrett Jersey
India’s Dirty Secret Is an Oil Market Headache
What do you do when your dumping ground cleans up its act? That’s the problem confronting the oil market as the global shipping industry starts implementing regulations to limit its consumption of sulfur, a common impurity in crude that can cause respiratory problems and acid rain when it’s burned. As we saw in a column Wednesday, rules on sulfur content coming into force at the start of 2020 will make the bunker fuel used in ships — traditionally the cheapest, dirtiest fraction from refining — cleaner than the median barrel of crude oil produced worldwide. As a result, the world’s refiners are going to have to find another way to get rid of their noisome by-products. One popular way of doing this of late has been to sell it to India as a cheap coal substitute. Petroleum coke or petcoke is a spongy, solid residue from oil distillation that can be burned for fuel in the same manner as coal, and typically has a higher energy content. Due to a loophole in India’s environmental taxes, petcoke has become an attractive raw material for power stations and cement plants. While plain old coal attracts a clean-energy levy that’s risen to 400 rupees ($5.83) a metric ton since it was introduced in 2010, petcoke has been exempt. With Indian prices for coal of comparable heating values in the region of 4,000 rupees a ton, that tax has been enough to tip the scales in petcoke’s favor. Similar levy issues have favored it over natural gas, too. The results have been dramatic. Over the decade through 2017, petcoke was the fastest-growing fraction of oil demand in India, expanding at a 15 percent compounded annual rate. In the year through March 2017, the 24 million metric tons of petcoke consumed represented the second-biggest share of India’s petroleum consumption after diesel, outstripping even LPG and gasoline. The problem with that is that while petcoke is richer in energy than coal, it can have 20 times as much sulfur, too. The choking smogs that have made India’s cities the world’s most polluted in recent years have sparked a justifiable backlash. The country’s Supreme Court last year banned the use of petcoke in New Delhi and adjacent states, before allowing a reprieve for the cement companies that consume about half of it. Few expect that to be the end of the matter. New Delhi is planning a nationwide ban on using petcoke as fuel, Reuters reported in May, citing government sources it didn’t name. On top of that, officials have promised to look at measures to halt imports. That’s significant, because petcoke produced overseas now accounts for about 40 percent of supply, much of it from U.S. refineries processing heavy Canadian and Latin American crude. Cement plants, which currently escape the court ban on the contestable grounds that all their sulfur is removed in the production process, might not continue to be exempt, either. Short of that, the government should at least change its clean-energy taxes so that the levy on petcoke is equal to that on coal. While that will be great news for Indians’ health, it will be a headache for the global refining industry. The cheapest ways of getting rid of petroleum’s sulfur content have traditionally been to sneak it into lower-grade products, but tightening environmental regulations have progressively driven it out of diesel and now look certain to sharply reduce it from bunker fuel, too. It the petcoke safety valve is closed, it’s not clear what they’ll do with it. It’s not a complete disaster. Refineries can remove the sulfur altogether and turn it into sulfuric acid, a prized raw material for the fertilizer industry and chemicals manufacturing that can even be fed back into refineries to produce ingredients for high-octane gasoline. Still, the economics of that look distinctly shaky. Building sulfur plants is costly and takes up a lot of room, at a time when refineries aren’t looking to splurge on capex, according to Sushant Gupta, an analyst with consultancy Wood Mackenzie. Furthermore, the sulfur market is facing a surplus of about 3 million metric tons this year that could grow into a “sustained period of depression” after that, according to consultancy Integer Research, reducing the return from selling the element. Refiners are used to offloading their bottom-of-the-barrel fractions at a loss to compensate for the more profitable volatile products like gasoline, diesel and naphtha, but the balance of that compromise is set to worsen in future. The cheap and cheerless path of pumping the oil industry’s impurities into the skies over India and Earth’s oceans is gradually disappearing. Cleaning up your act never looked so costly. Second in a series of pieces about sulfur in the fossil-fuel market. The first column, on shipping fuel, appeared on July 18, 2018. The third, on coal, appears Friday, July 20. Jake Butt Authentic Jersey
India’s dilemma: Donald Trump or cheap Iran oil
The US embargo on Iran oil shipments has put Prime Minister Narendra Modi in a quandary. If he plays along, India could find itself on the right side of President Donald Trump on trade but lose cheap supplies and precious foreign exchange. Oil imports from Iran totaled about $9 billion in the year ended March and substituting some of the contracts with more North American crude will help India lower the $24.5 billion trade surplus it runs with the world’s largest economy. The South Asian nation is already buying more crude from the US, data from the Census Bureau and Energy Information Administration show. While ending purchases from Iran will cost India savings on shipping costs and the longest credit period offered by any of its suppliers, there are gains to be had from paring the trade surplus with the US — at the heart of Trump’s trade war with China. For one, it will soften the approach on thorny issues such as India being named in the US Treasury’s watchlist of potential currency manipulators who use exchange rates to boost exports. “The upcoming sanctions on Iran provide a golden opportunity to commercialize more US oil in the Indian market,” said Abhishek Kumar, a senior energy analyst at Interfax Energy in London. “Escalating trade tensions between the US and China will also be conducive to more US oil coming to the Indian market.” India has been preparing for alternative supplies after the US decision to reimpose sanctions on the Persian Gulf state. Narrowing the trade surplus may also help India win a possible exemption on US tariffs on some products, including steel and aluminum. India, for now, has announced retaliatory tariffs on a slew of US imports but said the room for talks are open. Largest Volume Crude imports from the US rose 800 percent month-on-month to 4.72 million barrels in May, the largest volume since at least 2015 for which data is available. India, the world’s fastest growing oil user, could bridge the surplus by up to $4 billion through oil imports alone, government officials said in April. But there are limitations to how much India can buy from the US at the moment. The US currently has only one export terminal that can accommodate 2-million-barrel supertankers preferred by faraway customers in Asia and expansions at other ports aren’t expected to be completed before 2020. Indian Oil, the South Asian nation’s biggest refiner, is working on possibilities of entering into term contracts for US volumes, instead of the current practice of purchasing from the spot market, Chairman Sanjiv Singh said in an interview. There’s potential for India to increase oil purchases from the US, whose first shipment reached the South Asian nation in August 2017 after Washington lifted its four-decade-long curbs on crude oil exports. “The US is focused on boosting its hydrocarbon exports to India,” said Interfax’s Kumar. “A wide front-month futures price premium of Brent over WTI will further provide a competitive edge to oil sourced from the US” Michael Johnson Jersey
ANALYSIS: For the global LNG industry, is the FSRU honeymoon over?
A giant vessel docked at the port of Moheshkhali in Bangladesh two months ago, propelling the populous but poor nation into the fast-expanding club of liquefied natural gas (LNG) buyers. The Excellence is the latest floating storage and regasification unit (FSRU), a type of carrier that has proliferated since 2015 as many countries switch to a cleaner and increasingly cheaper fuel than oil and coal. But the young FSRU industry has been beset by more project delays than successes in the past 12 months as fluctuating energy prices, shipping rates, government policies and not least strong demand for gas in China reshape the sector. With the number of countries importing LNG having risen to 42 from 30 in three years, “plug and play” projects, in which regasification vessels link to well-worn physical and commercial infrastructure, are expected to continue if at a slower pace. But strong Chinese demand for super-chilled LNG has dampened the allure of projects in other countries by lapping up excess supply, and new entrants are trying to develop smaller ventures. “In the last year or so, FSRUs have suffered a bit of a setback from the stellar growth they were previously enjoying,” Andrew Buckland, Wood Mackenzie’s global LNG trade and shipping principal analyst, said. “Some of that is down to conditions unique to particular proposed projects. But a lot of it is more to do with demand being stronger than expected in existing conventional markets.” Since a golden period between 2015 and 2017, when almost half of the world’s 34 FSRUs came onstream, projects in Ghana, Pakistan and Ivory Coast have been scrapped and in countries such as Chile, Croatia and South Africa, delayed. Those stung include oil majors such as ExxonMobil, trading houses including Trafigura and shipping companies that provide FSRUs such as Norway’s Hoegh LNG. Some have backed off; others have regrouped in different configurations. PLUG AND PLAY FSRUs are relatively new – the first was put in operation in 2005 by Excelerate, which figured out how to fit an entire LNG terminal onto a single ship. The unlisted US company, together with Golar and Hoegh, now dominates the industry. On the face of it, they have a big advantage over onshore import terminals – cheaper by half at around $300-400 million, twice as quick to deliver and flexible to boot because the vessel can journey to other destinations once it is not needed. This was shown by Egypt’s first FSRU project, completed by privately owned BW Group within just five months at Ain Sokhna on the Suez canal. But the project was an ideal “plug and play” venture: suffering severe power cuts as its own gas output fell, Egypt had the infrastructure to accept regasified LNG. Conversely, Ghana demonstrates the difficulties of what are still complex projects despite their lower costs and lead times. The country has yet to enter the LNG club despite coming so close that two FSRUs were earmarked for two projects. Here, issues related to the construction of onshore infrastructure and solid contracts with power plants, the end consumers of the LNG, delayed and scuppered successive ventures. The Golar and Hoegh FSRUs were reassigned to other locations. “Developing countries by their nature have limited capacity when it comes to policy and regulatory structures,” said Lance Crist, head of natural resources for International Finance Corp, a World Bank arm that has lent to several FSRU projects. “Many of these are much smaller markets. You’re not talking about large, liquid markets with established infrastructure where you can just plug and play,” he said. LESS NEED FOR NEW MARKETS While the Ghana saga unravelled over the past three years, global LNG market trends changed the dynamics of FSRU projects. Rates for transporting LNG rose, boosting the revenues of LNG shipping companies that were thinking of branching into FSRUs, and China’s demand for gas skyrocketed, soaking up an anticipated oversupply in the market. China’s environmental drive to convert heating plants from coal to gas drove 40 percent of global LNG demand growth last year and increased Chinese gas imports by 15 percent, making it the second-largest LNG buyer after Japan, the International Energy Agency said in June. This created less urgency to open new markets by parking FSRUs in countries that had hitherto not bought LNG. Existing terminals, usually underused, took more supplies. The result has been a slowdown in the delivery of planned projects. “Prior to last winter, when it looked like there’d be excess LNG, creating new demand centres via FSRUs looked a more attractive strategy than it does now,” Buckland said. “Which is not to say they won’t come back to that in the future.” Meanwhile, LNG carrier rates, which slumped to $25,000 per day in 2017, more than tripled to $85,000 a day. This meant those companies that operate LNG carriers but wanted to join the FSRU bonanza had missed the boat – at least for now. For example, LNG carrier company Flex LNG backed out of the FSRU business in May, saying shipping rates and project delays had made the move unattractive compared to improved carrier rates, its chief source of revenue. LESS IS MORE Some large projects are still due to come onstream, if at a slower pace: Ivory Coast is scheduled to become an LNG-buying nation by 2020 with a Total project using a Golar FSRU. The rush of new projects between 2015 and 2017 together with predictions of LNG oversupply also attracted trading houses wanting to secure markets for the rising volumes they bought and sold. Trafigura, Vitol and Gunvor have competing plans for FSRUs in Pakistan after the country became an LNG importer in 2016 but have failed to get projects in Bangladesh off the ground. Now the urgency has receded with China’s growing appetite for LNG. But there has been a proliferation of much smaller projects: LNG-to-power ventures, FSRUs for single users such as gas-intensive fertiliser plants and “petrol stations” for ships using LNG as bunker fuel in northern Europe. “The old
Iran shall continue to supply oil to India: Abbas Araghchi
Iran’s deputy foreign minister Abbas Araghchi was in India to hold foreign office consultations. His visit assumed significance in the wake of US sanctions threatening to block oil supplies to India. In an exclusive interview to WION, he indicated that both countries were exploring ways to circumvent US sanctions by making oil payments in rupee or euros, which means a sort of trilateral cooperation between Iran, India and the European Union. India has also agreed to allow Iran’s Pasargad Bank to open its branch in Mumbai to facilitate payments for oil imports. The foreign ministers of both countries are also meeting in Tehran in November to further strengthen the mechanism and explore further possibilities. Excerpts: You held consultations with your Indian counterparts. Was there any way out on the issue of oil payments in the wake of US sanctions? Yes, oil was one of the main subjects of discussion. Iran and India have been partners for long. Previous US sanctions didn’t stop our ties. Iran shall continue to be a supplier of oil to India. Did you discuss any mechanisms that will come into force after the US sanctions? Different ideas are under consideration. We will update, adjust existing mechanisms. We exchanged some creative ideas in the meetings here. Will it affect Chabahar port project? We are quite satisfied with the ongoing work at Chabahar. It is an example of strategic cooperation. It has importance for Afghanistan and Central Asia. Iran attaches great importance to the port project. Donovan Smith Jersey