The latest market figures show that India’s imports of crude oil from Iran jumped by a whopping 49 percent in April from a year ago. 

The figures released by Reuters show that India’s refineries took 393,000 barrels per day (bpd) of Iran’s oil in April.  The shipments were nonetheless lower by 22.4 percent from those in March when the Islamic Republic exported a multi-year high volume of 500,000 bpd.

Reuters has quoted industry sources as saying that India’s oil imports from Iran are set to surge to a seven-year high in the year that began April 1, with the nation's state-owned and private refiners together buying at least 400,000 bpd.

Part of India's recent resurgence in Iranian purchases comes from Reliance Industries, operator of the world's biggest refining complex, which in March took oil from Iran for the first time in six years for its plant in western India.

The private refiner, however, did not take any parcel from Tehran in April, accounting for most of the drop from the previous month. Its purchases in March were done under spot deals, although it is looking to sign up for long-term supplies from Iran, Reuters added in its report.

Another private refiner, Essar Oil, was the biggest buyer of Iranian oil in April, shipping in about 181,300 bpd, followed by Mangalore Refinery and Petrochemicals Ltd with about 110,200 bpd, and Indian Oil Corp with 101,400 bpd, the shipping and terminal data showed.

In the first four month of 2016 India's Iran oil imports more than doubled to 322,500 bpd, the data showed, in comparison with 160,500 bpd in the same period last year.

By Press TV