India does not have any plans to buy oil from Iran in November this year. The move will make loose another Tehran’s customer due to the U.S. sanctions and spurs speculation of whether China too may follow it soon.

India is among other Asian buyers of Iranian oil that have already halted their imports from the Persian country. South Korea and Japan too are among this group who have stopped importing completely much before the restrictions by the US will take effect in early November. The matter is not clear regarding China of whether it would opt for stopping imports from the Iranian country or go on with future purchases. China is considered the biggest oil importer in the world along with being the top customer of Iran.

According to officials from the state-owned oil companies like Indian Oil Corp. and Bharat Petroleum Corp, (Two largest state-owned refiners in the country) haven’t intimated Iranian cargoes of any loading for the month of November. An executive from Nayara Energy too has said that it does not plan to buy oil from the country. There is no such word from Mangalore Refinery and Petrochemicals Ltd for that month, but such moves may become clear later on, a company official said.

All these companies are the four largest buyers from India for the Iranian oil. They account for importing almost all of it from the Islamic republic.

“Iranian exports may drop below 1 million barrels a day in November, with Indian refiners potentially loading nothing and China cutting back as well,” Amrita Sen, chief oil analyst at Energy Aspects Ltd. in London, said in a note to clients.

The result of the rapid drop in Iranian oil exports has helped in pushing of Brent crude, considered a global benchmark, to a four-year new high of above USD 80 per barrel. Further losses in output may drive the oil prices even higher as refiners urgently seek replacement barrels elsewhere. To pump more oil, only a few countries are capable, among which are Saudi Arabia, United Arab Emirates, and Russia.

The price of Brent crude went up by 22 cents at USD 82.09 per barrel by 8:15 a.m. in London, just as the President of US Donald Trump criticizes OPEC and demands the cartel lower oil prices.

Trump told the United Nations General Assembly on Tuesday, that Iran’s leaders “sow chaos, death and destruction” in a speech that also included OPEC as its target. However, he praised India by saying that the nation is “a free society over a billion people, successfully lifting countless millions out of poverty and into the middle class.”

India remained the second largest Iranian oil buyer by importing an average of 577,000 barrels per day for this year or about 27 percent of the total Middle Eastern country’s exports, as per the Bloomberg tanker tracking data. Due to the stoppage of importing oil from the Persian Gulf, Indian refiners may feel the pain on a temporary basis, but it will certainly prove to be a major blow for the Islamic republic.

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