Iran and Pakistan sign multi-billion dollar gas pipeline

25 May 2009

Iran and Pakistan yesterday signed a multi-billion dollar gas pipeline agreement yesterday, with Iran saying that India could still be a part of the deal in the future.

Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad and Pakistan's President Asif Ali Zardari, who is in Tehran to attend the tripartite summit on Afghan security, signed the tentative agreement, while the formal agreement will be signed in a third country in two.

Speaking at a news conference in Tehran Iran's foreign ministry spokesperson Hassan Qashqavi said that although Iran and Pakistan have signed the agreement, any third country, including India, could also join in later.

Talking to a private TV channel, Dr Asim Hussain, Pakistan's advisor on Petroleum and Natural Resources said that work on the multi-billion dollar gas pipeline would start in three to four years and completed after five years.

Under the agreement, Iran will supply Pakistan 23 million cubic metre gas per day for 25 years and out of the approximately 2,100km-long pipeline, Iran will lay approximately 1,000km of the pipeline in its territory while another 1,000km would be laid by Pakistan on its soil.
Both countries have arrived at a new pricing formula, which has taken most part of the 14-year negotiations. 

With the world's second-largest gas reserves after Russia, in 1995 Iran signed a preliminary agreement for the construction of a natural gas pipeline with Pakistan to link the Iranian South Pars natural gas field in the Persian Gulf with Pakistan's major cities of Karachi and Multan.