US needs to keep pushing India, China to reduce Iranian oil

The US needs to keep pressing countries like India and China to reduce their dependence on Iranian oil, a top American diplomat has told lawmakers.

At the same time, the US official acknowledged the challenges being faced by these countries, which have galloping energy needs and so tough to reduce the imports from the oil-rich country.

“We agree that we need to keep pressing China, India, Turkey, South Korea, Japan, and there are small amounts of oil that still to go Taiwan that we need to keep pressing,” Under Secretary of State for Political Affairs Wendy Sherman, told lawmakers at a Congressional hearing on Iran held by the Senate Foreign Relations Committee, yesterday.

All 23 importers of Iranian oil have either eliminated or significantly reduced purchases from Iran and we are left with only five major customers of oil, she said.

The top five are China, India, Turkey, South Korea and Japan.

She said that countries like India and China are willing to further reduce their dependence on Iranian oil if the US exports natural gas to them.

“Without a doubt, though I would note, particularly probably for China and India, it becomes more and more difficult to do because their demands are growing exponentially even as they are reducing,” Sherman said.

“A given percentage reduction from China, which is currently the largest purchaser of oil from Iran, would be approximately equal to a volume reduction twice as large as the same percentage reduction from India, three times as large as the same percentage reduction from South Korea, and four times bigger than the same percentage reduction from Turkey.

So even a one per cent decline in Chinese purchases is double what anybody else’s reduction is because their volumes are so great,” she said.

Senator Ben Cardin said that China is still buying a significant amount of oil from Iran.

“Some of our closest allies in Asia are buying oil from Iran. We had our rebalance to Asia. It seems to me that we could be more effective in having greater help from those countries,” he said.

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