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India Pakistan Iran pipeline waits approval ...again

by rahul | July 25, 2008 at 11:11 am | 80 views | add comment

The final agreement of the 2,775-kilometer gas pipeline that would link Iran to Pakistan and India waits for approval. This time the self imposed August deadline for signature would not be met. Formally, the key issue of gas prices has not been resolved as yet. However, the recent result of the confidence vote of the UPA government in India and the prospect of negotiations with US over the Nuclear cooperation might delay the gas pipe project again.

IPI pipeline may not meet deadline
Fri, 25 Jul 2008 14:49:43

Iran, Pakistan and India may miss the August deadline set by New Delhi and Tehran to sign a final agreement on a pipeline project.

"Last month we asked Iran to convene a trilateral ministerial meeting to resolve the outstanding issues; we wanted to pave the way for the signing of an agreement on the pipeline project. So far, they have not communicated any dates," an unnamed senior Indian Petroleum Ministry official was quoted by Business Standard as saying on Thursday.

Iranian Oil Minister Gholam-Hossein Nozari and his Indian counterpart Murli Deora agreed in a recent energy conference in Madrid to finalize the Iran-Pakistan-India (IPI) pipeline project contract by August. The three countries have so far agreed on the formula for transportation charges, however, key issue of price has still remained unresolved between Iran and India.

Iran and Pakistan have finalized a Gas Sales Purchase Agreement, based on which a periodic gas price adjustment will be agreed to the two countries but India has not agreed to price revision.

Iran has addressed the India's concern on the security of the pipeline passing through Pakistan by agreeing to move the delivery point to India-Pakistan border.

The 2,775-kilometer gas pipeline will initially transfer 60 million cubic meters of natural gas per day from Iran to India and Pakistan; with capacity set to eventually increase to 150 million cubic meters per day.

MMM/JG/MK