Fact Check: Did India send back Iranian oil ships after Trump's call to Modi?

On Tuesday, April 14, the US said that it will once again restrict Iranian oil after temporarily allowing exports amid a global energy crisis in March. Now, if social media posts are to be believed, India allegedly refused to unload two vessels carrying Iranian crude after US President Donald Trump's call to Prime Minister Narendra Modi the same day.

An X account wrote, “JUST IN: India returned two million barrels of Iranian oil following a call from Trump. Details: India had paid for 2 million barrels of Iranian oil, and the tanker was en route to India. Trump made a phone call to Modi, and India refused to unload the oil from the tanker. The tanker is now on its way back to Iran.” Its archive can be viewed here.

India Today Fact Check found that two supertankers carrying Iranian crude are currently moored off India's western and eastern coasts, and there are no reports of them being returned without unloading their oil cargo.

Our Probe

We did not find any credible national and international reports about the Indian government refusing to accept Iranian oil and returning their carriers. With economists and reporters constantly monitoring global oil transport amid the conflict in West Asia, two tankers full of crude being returned to Iran would have made headlines everywhere.

Reuters reported on April 13 that two large crude carriers loaded with Iranian oil had reached Indian ports. The Iran-flagged Felicity reached Sikka Port in Gujarat, while the Curacao-flagged Jaya reached the eastern port of Paradip in Odisha. This was, per Reuters, the first purchase of oil by Indian refiners from Tehran since 2019.

According to The Times of India, Felicity, owned by the National Iranian Tanker Company, dropped anchor off Sikka in Gujarat on April 12. The vessel is carrying approximately 2 million barrels of crude loaded from Kharg Island in mid-March.

The other tanker, Jaya, anchored near Paradip on Odisha's coast around the same time. This vessel reportedly set sail with a similar volume of crude oil from Kharg in late February, before the US-Israel-Iran War. The Times report noted that ownership of the vessel was unclear.

According to the report, the buyers of these cargoes have not been officially disclosed. However, the Paradip port is primarily used by Indian Oil Corporation, and Sikka is used by Reliance Industries and the Bharat Petroleum Corporation.

Tracking the ships

According to the maritime tracking website MarineTraffic, Felicity is currently in the Gulf of Kutch, off the coast of Gujarat. The ship arrived at Sikka port on April 13. The other ship, Jaya, is currently located in the Bay of Bengal. The Crude Oil Tanker sailing under the flag of Curacao, a Caribbean nation, arrived at Paradip Port in Odisha on the same day.

The US last month waived sanctions on the purchase of Iranian oil at sea for 30 days. This waiver will expire on April 19. According to a PTI report, an estimated 95 million barrels of Iranian oil is currently on vessels at sea.