India’s oil ministry has told local refiners to get ready for a “drastic reduction or zero” oil imports from Iran, industry sources told Reuters on Thursday, a sign that India—Tehran’s second-largest oil customer—is bowing to pressure from the U.S. to reduce imports from Iran. In the first weeks after the U.S. withdrawal from the Iran nuclear deal and the re-imposition of sanctions on Tehran, India said that it would continue to import Iranian crude despite U.S. sanctions, because India only honors sanctions imposed by the United Nations, but not ones introduced by individual countries. But earlier this week, the U.S. asked its allies to cut oil imports from Iran to “zero” by early November when the U.S. sanctions on Tehran return, sending oil prices rising on expectations that more Iranian barrels could be taken off the market than expected as the U.S. Administration looks determined to choke off as […]