Iran has assured India of uninterrupted crude oil supplies in January and proposed a temporary payment channel through a bank based in Germany , a senior Indian official said Tuesday, in a step forward to ending the deadlock over oil-related payments to the Islamic Republic after India 's central bank imposed some curbs.

The official, declining to be named, told reporters that the National Iranian Oil Co., in a letter to Indian oil companies, said payments can be routed through a euro account at Europaisch-Iranische Handelsbank AG.

The Indian government has advised the oil companies to open individual accounts with State Bank of India (500112.BY), which in turn will make payments to the bank in Germany , the official added.

Iran 's central bank has an existing account at EIH AG, the official said.

EIH AG is a Hamburg-headquartered bank specializing in services and business opportunities with Iran . It has branches in Tehran and in the Free Zone of Kish Island.

NIOC and the Iranian central bank couldn't be immediately reached for comments.

A delegation of Indian officials will be visiting Tehran in mid-January for talks on a more lasting solution for oil-related payments, the official said.

An early impasse to the issue is critical for both energy-hungry New Delhi and sanctions-hit Tehran . Iran is the second-biggest supplier of crude to India after Saudi Arabia , accounting for about 14% of the country's oil import bill.

Friday, central bank officials of the two countries met in the Indian financial capital of Mumbai, but an immediate resolution wasn't found.

NIOC had proposed that India 's oil companies, including Indian Oil Corp. (530965.BY) and Mangalore Refinery & Petrochemicals Ltd. (500109.BY) open accounts with EIH AG, according to the official.

But India has said that companies should open accounts with the State Bank of India , which in turn will deal with EIH to make the process easier.

SBI is India 's largest lender by assets and has a branch in Frankfurt in Germany .

"We have taken it up with SBI to open an account in EIH on behalf of other companies," the official said.

Separately, India 's Oil Secretary S. Sundareshan, the ministry's top bureaucrat, said Tuesday that there has been no disruption in supplies.

"Tankers are loaded. There is no disruption. It is being resolved. We will find some way," he said.

The impasse came about after the Reserve Bank of India said that all trade-related payments with Iran had to be cleared outside the Asian Clearing Union mechanism.

The ACU is a clearing house arrangement amongst nine central banks, including that of Iran and South Asian nations. All trade-related payments are settled every two months on a net basis through the ACU. But this cycle led to pressure from the U.S. , which says the system is opaque and Tehran could be using it to finance its alleged nuclear weapons program.

The European Union on Oct. 25 asked for euro-related currency settlements to be certified on a transaction-by-transaction basis, forcing central banks to issue certificates for payments made for all commodities, including oil.

India has maintained that the new EU regulations have created administrative and technical issues due to which it had curbed payments through the ACU.

Indian oil companies said that they have had a "barrage of communication" in recent days with NIOC to sort out the issue.

"Our January (crude oil) loadings are already going on and our payments are not due until March. We have sufficient time for the issue to be sorted out," said a senior official with Hindustan Petroleum Corp. (500104.BY), which imports 3 million metric tons of crude a year from the Islamic nation.

"All payment issues are being handled by the RBI and SBI, as they are at the forefront of the matter," said a top official at another oil company, declining to be named.

Any impasse would have minimal impact for Indian Oil and Chennai Petroleum Corp. (500110.BY) as they source only 3-4% of their total crude throughput from Iran , rating agency Icra said.

But MRPL imports about 7.6 million tons a year from NIOC, accounting for around 60% of its annual crude oil requirements.

"MRPL of late has been getting a credit period of 90 days for crude oil imported from Iran , which would be significantly lower at around 30 days from other suppliers, and hence can result in an increase in the working capital intensity of the company," Icra said.

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