The Delhi car bomb blast has put the India-Iran ties under pressure but New Delhi has hinted that there can be further cooperation with Tehran to fulfill its energy security needs.

“We can find out potential in countries across the (South Asian) region to the rest of other countries like Iran, Uzbekistan and Tajikistan which are surrounding us,” said BK Chaturvedi, member (energy) of the planning commission, at the cross-border energy trade summit organised by USAID and CII in New Delhi.

Chaturvedi added, “There is a possibility for us to engage them in energy trade. This is the potential we would have to take care of.”

India makes 10 percent of oil imports from Iran. But the US has put pressure on countries like India in recent months to stop payments for oil imported from Tehran because of its nuclear ambitions. Earlier Washington had put pressure on New Delhi to scuttle the proposed multi-billion dollar gas pipeline from Iran to India via Pakistan.

Iran possesses the second largest oil and gas reserves after Saudi Arabia. Tehran’s geographical proximity makes it a logical source of hydrocarbons for energy starved India, which wants to grow at eight to nine percent GDP. Statistics say that India imports 70 percent of hydrocarbons and is expected to import 90 percent in the years ahead.