Iran, Pakistan set October date for Iran-Pakistan-India gas pipeline deal

29 Sep 2007

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Mumbai: Iran and Pakistan have agreed on the details of a multi-billion dollar gas pipeline project and, in the absence of India, the two will sign an agreement by the end of October, Iranian oil officials said.

Officials from both sides also agreed that the proposed $7.4 billion Iran-Pakistan-India pipeline would be viable even if India walked out.

"The economics of the project will improve with Indian participation but the project is economically viable as a bilateral project also," Mukhtar Ahmed, the energy adviser to Pakistan''s prime minister, said.

India stayed away from the latest round of talks in Tehran as it wanted a bilateral agreement with Pakistan on the transit costs through Pakistan before going for a tripartite deal, Hojatollah Ghanimi-Fard, Iran`s representative at the talks, said. He said India had not said it was quitting.

He said India was welcome to join the contract "whenever the country`s problems are resolved and it will be a tripartite deal".

"It was agreed that the price be calculated according to the current gas market standards," Ghanimi-Fard said.

The pipeline from Iran`s south pars gas field would initially carry around 60 million standard cubic metres of gas per day.

The 2,600-km pipeline would initially carry 60 million cubic metres of gas daily to Pakistan and India. The pipeline''s capacity would later rise to 150 million cu metres.

Iran says it has completed 18 per cent of the work for the pipeline to bring gas from its South Pars field up to Iran-Pakistan border. Pakistan has yet to begin work on a 1,000 km stretch of the pipeline to link Iran with India.

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