Indicative of a potential revival in energy cooperation, Union Minister for Petroleum Hardeep Singh Puri met his Iranian counterpart Mohsen Paknejad on the sidelines of the BRICS Energy Ministers’ Meeting Thursday.

Describing the meeting, Mr. Puri wrote on his social media, “We explored opportunities to cooperate in the energy sector. India remains committed to enhancing energy security through dialogue, partnership and mutually beneficial engagement.”

India had halted purchases of crude from Tehran in 2019 following U.S. sanctions. According to data from S&P Global Commodities at Sea, India purchased 518 thousand barrel per day of Iranian oil in 2018 which slowed down to 268 thousand barrel per day between January and May 2019 when the U.S. granted a temporary waiver.

Refiners in India had moved away from purchasing the crude until April this year when U.S. offered a temporary thirty-day waiver.

However, the latest peace-deal between Iran and United States also houses a waiver for “production, delivery and sale of crude oil, petrochemical products and petroleum products” from Iran.

Amid the sanction, China had been Iran’s only major buyer in the seven-years of sanctions.

According to data from S&P Platts, Chinese independent refineries imported about 1.58 million barrels per day of crude oil between January and May this year.