Iran has replaced Kuwait as the fifth largest oil supplier to India, the Economic Times said.

The Indian newspaper said that “Iran has toppled Kuwait to become India’s fifth largest crude oil supplier in the first half of 2015-16 fiscal year, selling over 6.5 million tons of oil.”

“Iran, which was India’s second biggest supplier of crude oil after Saudi Arabia till 2010-11, sold 6.53 million tons of oil to India in April-September as compared to 5.31 million tons crude coming from Kuwait,” the newspaper quoted official sources as saying.

Stressing that “India is 80 per cent dependent on imports to meet its oil needs,” the paper said that “with prospects of sanctions being eased after a deal with the Western powers on its nuclear program, Iran is now behind only Saudi Arabia (19.56 million tons), Iraq (17.01 million tons), Nigeria (11.59 million tons) and Venezuela (10.89 million tons) in oil supplies to India.”

“After the west imposed sanctions, India brought down the purchases to 13.14 million tons in 2012-13 and had limited them in the years thereafter.”

The Economic Time went on to quote sources as saying that “India imported 99.36 million tons of crude oil in April-September this fiscal year, 57 per cent of which came from the Middle East region.”