Iran, Pakistan agree over gas sales without India

[Awesome]

Iran, Pakistan agree over gas sales without India | Markets | Reuters

By Edmund Blair

TEHRAN, Sept 28 (Reuters) - Pakistan has agreed to details of a deal for buying gas from Iran, officials from both sides said on Friday, adding that the proposed tri-nation pipeline would be viable even if India, the third party, walked out.

India stayed away from this week's talks in Tehran on the proposed $7 billion pipeline, saying it wanted to agree transit costs through Pakistan on a bilateral basis first, an Iranian official said. But he said India had not said it was quitting.

"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, told reporters in Tehran.

Hojjatollah Ghanimifard, international affairs director of the National Iranian Oil Company (NIOC), said the three sides had previously planned for gas sales and purchase agreements (GSPAs) to be negotiated separately by India and Pakistan.

"So far, the information formally we have from the authorities of India is that they are willing to join us. They have just their internal problems, including that they need to finalise the transit fee with our good Pakistani friends," Ghanimifard said after talks late on Friday.

Iran's oil minister said on Wednesday his country would still sign a deal with Pakistan if India decided not to join.

Mukhtar said Pakistan and India had agreed in principle how to tackle issues like transportation tariffs and transit fees.

"We don't see transit through Pakistan as a problem. We've had bilateral discussions with India on this subject," he said, although he said more talks were be needed.

Speaking of Pakistan's talks with Iran, Mukhtar said: "We have agreed upon everything that we needed to agree on with regard to the gas sales and purchase agreement and the inter-governmental framework agreement."

He said the details would be drawn up in final documents to be examined at bilateral talks in Islamabad on Oct. 15-19.

Mukhtar did not give details for the price of the gas agreed but said it would be linked to the price of oil. He also they also agreed on a price review clause -- an issue that had been pending -- but he did not elaborate.

In July, Ghanimifard said India and Pakistan had accepted Iran's demand for gas price reviews based on market changes. He denied reports by some Indian newspapers that the pipeline talks had failed after Iran demanded a review every three years.

The pipeline would initially carry 60 million cubic metres of gas daily to Pakistan and India, half for each country. The pipeline's capacity would later rise to 150 million cu metres. Pakistan says it could want 60 million cu metres for itself in the future.

Iran says it has completed 18 percent 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 (625 mile) stretch of the pipeline to link Iran with India.

Iran has the world's second-largest gas reserves after Russia. But sanctions, politics and construction delays have slowed its gas development, and analysts say Iran is unlikely to become a major exporter for a decade.

 

[Always Neutral]

I wonder how they will pay the Foreign Contractors ? USD and EURO will need the US or EU banking systems and that will be problem. I think maybe a russian or chinese contractor will take the risk. I wonder when USA will warn Pakistan not to go down that path.

 

[BATMAN]

^ It seems you have been out of touch from news for some time but It has also been discussed on this forum that most able and likely contractor will be Russians as they have lot of experience for such work.
FYI, Russians are building trans-Sibera pipeline. If they cann dothat than this 1600km. line should be a piece of cake.
Americans have shown there displeasure many times in past and with Indian pull out it is crystal clear who is playing servant to them.

 

[Spring Onion]

lolz always US had already warned us on going ahead with the project and also had offered us to invest in energey sector lolz
But Pakistan refused keeping our own needs in view
And as far foreign contractors there was a news back in 2005 about proposal of involving local companies in the project.
i dont think so there would be any US contractors.

 

[PakForce Unlimited]

US asks India not to proceed with IPI gas pipeline project ​

NEW DELHI: The United States has asked India to not to proceed with Iran, Pakistan, India gas pipeline project.

The leading English Indian daily reported that US Treasury Secretary Henry Paulson is expected to ask India to keep away from the project during his visit to India starting from Sunday. “We are hoping that India won’t move forward on [the pipeline],” a US treasury official said.

The daily said US secretary of state Condoleezza Rice flew in to New Delhi two years back to tell Prime Minister Manmohan Singh’s government not to proceed with the India-Pakistan-Iran gas pipeline project.

She left, promising to pave the way for a civil nuclear cooperation agreement. Henry Paulson is expected to do the same job during his visit.

The paper further said the US Treasury Undersecretary for international affairs David McCormick told a press conference in Washington that Mr. Paulson would urge India not to move forward with the India-Pakistan-Iran gas pipeline project. “We are hoping that India won’t move forward on this,” McCormick said.

“We think at a time when the world should be imposing greater discipline on its interactions with [Iranian] companies and financial institutions and the Iranian government more broadly, that this is not the right path forward. We have been very clear on that.” Mr. McCormick went on to suggest that the US had a “profound understanding” of India’s energy needs and it was “one of the underlying pieces of logic” of the nuclear deal.

“But,” he added, “We do not see a pipeline with Iran providing India with any real energy security given the state of the Iranian regime.”

The daily said India maintains that it is interested in purchasing the Iranian gas, but the fresh round of sanctions by the US on Iran may have put the “peace pipeline” project in jeopardy.

According to reports, Pakistan Petroleum Secretary Farrakh Qayyum has invited his Indian counterpart M.S. Srinivasan for comprehensive bilateral talks between November 1 and 3 or between November 12 and 14 in Islamabad to resolve issues relating to the project.

The US could also invoke the 1996 Iran-Libya Sanctions Act to impose sanctions on countries that assist Iran in exploiting its petroleum resources, the paper reported.

Link: US asks India not to proceed with IPI gas pipeline project