India's Home Ministry Holds High-Level Meeting On Petroleum Amid Iran Sanctions - Source

NEW DELHI (Pakistan Point News / Sputnik - 05th June, 2019) India's Home Ministry held a high-level meeting on petroleum, which was also attended by Foreign Minister Subrahmanyam Jaishankar and Petroleum Minister Dharmendra Pradhan, Home Ministry sources told Sputnik Tuesday.

"Home Minister Amit Shah chaired a high level meeting at the Home Ministry which was attended by Foreign Minister S. Jaishankar, Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman, Petroleum Minister Dharmendra Pradhan, Railway Minister Piyush Goyal and Chairman of CEO of NITI Aayog Amitabh Kanth. Discussion was held on the issues related to crude oil supply and investment in Petroleum and Gas sector in the country," sources said.

The chairman of India's Oil and Natural Gas Corporation, Shashi Shankar, and BPCL Chairman and Petroleum Secretary M.M. Kutty, were also present at the meeting.

The meeting comes amid concerns over how the Indian government plans to resolve the oil supply crisis after it decided to halt imports from Iran in a bid to avoid US sanctions. India relied on Iran to get some 10 percent of its oil and has yet to determine how it will make up the shortfall.

In April, the White House announced that the United States would end waivers for oil sanctions on Iran as it seeks to bring the country's oil exports to zero.

Eight of Iran's top oil customers - China, India, Italy, Japan, South Korea, Taiwan, Greece and Turkey - were granted waivers that allowed them to temporarily continue buying Iranian oil.

The United States said the eight nations had agreed to dramatically reduce oil imports from Iran.