Essar Oil, the top Indian buyer of Iranian crude, imported 96 percent more oil from Tehran in December compared with the previous month buoyed by the prospects of the lifting of Western sanctions, according to tanker arrival data made available to Reuters.

Essar Oil's overall shipments from Tehran rose 0.6 percent at about 117,700 barrels per day (bpd) in the first nine months of the contract year beginning April 1, 2015 the data also showed.

India's oil imports from Iran fell by about 23 percent in 2015 as refiners slowed purchases early in the year to keep imports within the limits of sanctions.

Essar imported 67,600 bpd oil from Tehran in December compared with 175,300 bpd a year ago. It shipped an average 99,500 from Iran in 2015, about 23 percent less than the previous year.

Essar's total crude imports in December declined 11 percent to about 298,000 bpd, the data showed. In 2015, it imported about eight percent less oil compared with a year earlier because of a month long shutdown of its refinery for upgrade, the data further indicated.