Mangalore Refinery and Petrochemicals Ltd, the nation's biggest buyer of Iranian crude oil, today

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said it is looking at diversifying its oil purchase as imports from the Persian Gulf nation that faces additional sanctions are an area of concern.

"This (crude oil import from Iran) is an area of concern... We are keeping all the options open. We have to be alive to the situation," MRPL Chairman Sudhir Vasudeva told reporters here.

MRPL, which has a term contract to buy 7.1 million tonnes of oil in the year ending March 31, is likely to import less than the contracted volumes, its Managing Director U K Basu said without elaborating.

The company has not decided on purchases from Iran in the next fiscal, Basu said, adding actual purchase this fiscal may be less than the contracted 7.1 million tonnes.

The European Union yesterday imposed a ban oil imports from Iran, the world's fourth-largest producer, starting July 1 as part of measures to increase pressure on the Islamic Republic's nuclear program.

US President Barack Obama had on December 31 signed into law fresh sanctions that deny access to the US financial system to any foreign bank that conducts business with the central bank of Iran.

India, the world's fourth-largest oil consumer, buys 12 per cent of its oil from Iran for which it pays about $ 1 billion a month through a Turkish bank.

Basu said MRPL has "as of now" not faced problems in paying for the Iranian oil.

"The company is continuing to get supply of Iran crude and as of now there are no payment related issues," MRPL said in a statement.

"When it comes to other import markets, we are leaving no stone unturned," Vasudeva said, adding the company is in discussions with countries in Latin America, the Middle East and Africa for oil imports.

Basu said MRPL imports 1.5 million tonnes of crude oil from Saudi Arabia and indicated that it may look at increasing the volumes.

"We are trying for all the countries for increasing the quantities," he said.

MRPL will be processing 14.2 million tonnes of crude oil in 2012-13 fiscal against planned 12.64 million tonnes in the current financial year as the refinery's capacity has been increased.

While it gets 1.7-1.8 million tonnes of oil from domestic fields, the rest it would be importing.