Shipping Corporation of India to resume sailing to Iran after four year hiatus

July 11, 2016: Shipping Corporation of India (SCI) will resume sailing to Iran after a four-year gap, transporting an oil cargo for a state-run refiner, the chairman of India's biggest shipping company. SCI stopped sailing to Iran in 2012 when sanctions targeting Iran's nuclear programme prevented the company obtaining insurance cover for oil and other shipments.

The company says it will accordingly use one of its Suezmax-sized tankers to ship an oil cargo for state-refiner Hindustan Petroleum Corp Ltd (HPCL) from Iran. "It is not yet decided ... which SCI-owned vessel is going to Iran," said SCI Chairman BB Sinha.

SCI stopped sailing to Iran in 2012 when sanctions targeting Iran's nuclear programme prevented the company obtaining insurance cover for oil and other shipments. SCI had contracts with HPCL, Bharat Petroleum Corp (BPCL) and Mangalore Refinery and Petrochemicals Ltd to ship crude from Iran, he said.

HPCL will resume Iranian oil imports from July after three years because insurance was now available for plants processing Iranian oil, its head of refineries BK Namdeo said.