Petroleum Secretary S. SundareshanWSJ story about India’s top energy official complaining that new US-engineered sanctions on Iran’s oil & gas industry would prevent India’s desired strategy of making investments there. Simultaneously, India has revived talks with Tehran about the long-proposed gas pipeline from Iran to India through Pakistan.
Of course, the sanctions ask far more of the East than the West, because the latter has extensive energy connectivity while the former is seeking to ramp up their own at high speed, and, as far as India is concerned, close-by Iran is THE obvious choice.
As the chart shows, India’s crude imports of oil have come close to doubling since just 2007, so one imagines all the low-hanging fruit has been plucked in terms of investments, making Iran all that much more attractive as a target.
And remember that, when talking nuclear sanctions, this is an India that went down the same path prior—despite much hand-wringing in the West, so no surprise that the Indians feel no particular need to freak out about Iran’s obvious ambitions.