Two sanctioned super tankers laden with Iranian crude have dropped anchor off Indian ports, marking what could be the first such cargo to arrive in the country in nearly seven years, just as the US escalates efforts to curb Tehran’s exports.

India hasn’t received Iranian oil since 2019 due to US sanctions. A waiver last month, however, allowed purchases of crude already on the water, a bid to ease the impact of the war in West Asia on global supply.

The world’s third-largest crude importer has since said it would buy cargoes from Iran, among other countries such as Russia, to navigate the energy crisis.

The Felicity, a very large crude carrier (VLCC) in shipping parlance, dropped anchor off Sikka in western India late Sunday, ship-tracking data show. Owned by the National Iranian Tanker Company, according to database Equasis, it is laden with 2 million barrels of Iranian crude that it lifted from the oil-export hub of Kharg Island in mid-March.

The Jaya began signalling on Sunday that it is moored near Paradip on the east coast. The ship had picked up 2 million barrels of crude from Kharg Island in late February before the US and Israel began attacking Iran. Jaya’s owner is listed as unknown on Equasis, a common feature of the shadow tankers serving Tehran’s oil industry.

The buyers of the two shipments are unclear. State-run IOC runs operations that use Odisha’s Paradip for crude deliveries. RIL uses Gujarat’s Sikka, as does PSU Bharat Petroleum Corporation, which runs a single-point mooring facility in the area.

The US had allowed the temporary sale of Iranian oil already loaded on tankers in late March, as it sought to put a lid on rising oil prices.