Iranian oil minister in India for energy talks

TEHRAN,May 27(MNA) – Iranian Oil Minister Rostam Qasemi arrived in India on Sunday for a three-day visit with Indian officials to discuss ways to enhance ties in different fields of energy. India is a great country which has notable potentials to meet Iran’s oil industry needs to equipment, Qasemi said at the New Delhi airport. On April 10, Indian Foreign Secretary Ranjan Mathai said notwithstanding severe economic sanctions slapped by the U.S. and the UN against Iran, India will continue to buy oil from “vital supplier” Iran. “We will continue to buy oil from Iran,” Mathai said, adding that the recent decline in oil import from Iran was due to logistics and banking problems and not because of any other reason. India is among Asia’s major importers of energy, and relies on the Islamic Republic to satisfy a portion of its energy requirements. India has reiterated that it will not halt its oil imports from Iran despite the U.S.-engineered sanctions against the Islamic Republic’s oil sector. At the beginning of 2012, the United States and the European Union (EU) imposed new sanctions on Iran’s oil and financial sectors. The sanctions, which prevent the EU member states from purchasing Iran's oil or extending insurance coverage for tankers carrying Iranian crude, came into effect on July 1, 2012.