May 15, 2012. Succumbing to US pressure, India has decided to cut crude oil import from Iran by over 11 per cent this fiscal to 15.5 million tons. India, which imports 80 per cent of its crude oil and relies on Tehran for 12 per cent of those imports, shipped 18.50 million tons of oil from Iran in 2011-12, Minister of State for Petroleum and Natural Gas R P N Singh said. This decision comes against the backdrop of intense US pressure on India to cut oil import from Iran. The government had said that it was not possible for India to take any decision to reduce the imports from Iran drastically as that country was important in meeting India's growing energy needs. US Secretary of State Hillary Clinton stated that India needed to further reduce imports from Iran to win waiver from US sanctions. The US has already granted waivers to the sanctions for Japan and 10 European countries but has left out China and India, Iran's biggest clients. India has not publicly said it was aiming to cut back oil imports from Iran but has unofficially asked its top imports to prune shipments from Tehran. India currently imports crude oil from over 30 countries.