“We have been very cautious for the past six months and will try to keep our exposure (to Iran),” said one source at the ECGC adding, "But we have not halted coverage to Iran exports.”
Many observers believe that India will press on with its plan to increase trade ties with the Islamic Republic despite the fresh Western sanctions.
India is Iran's second largest oil customer after China and purchases around $ 12 billion worth of Iranian crude every year, about 12 percent of its consumption.
In January, Iranian crude exports to India rose to 550,000 barrels a day, up 37.5 percent from December 2011.
This is while Japan's P&I Club, the country’s main shipping insurer, said on Friday that under new sanctions imposed against Iran the company will only be able to provide a fraction of the coverage to tankers transporting Iranian oil.
On December 31, 2011, US President Barack Obama signed into law new sanctions, seeking to penalize countries importing Iran's oil or doing transaction with Islamic Republic's Central Bank.
European Union foreign ministers also approved sanctions against Iran’s oil and financial sectors on January 23, including a ban on Iranian oil imports, a freeze on the assets of the country’s Central Bank within EU states, and a ban on selling diamonds, gold, and other precious metals to Tehran.
The United States, Israel and some of their allies accuse Tehran of pursuing military objectives in its nuclear program and have used this pretext to push for four rounds of UN sanctions and a series of unilateral sanctions against the Islamic Republic.
Iran has refuted the allegations, arguing that as a committed signatory to the nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty and member of the International Atomic Energy Agency, it has the right to use nuclear technology for peaceful use.
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India's Export Credit Guarantee Corporation (ECGC) says it has not stopped giving insurance coverage to shipments to Iran despite recent sanctions imposed against Tehran.
News ID 181531
