The Hindu Business Line : High-level Indo-Iran teams to discuss pricing, technical issues

CLOSE on the heels of deliberations between India and Pakistan over the commercial and technical structure of the proposed Iran-Pakistan-India gas pipeline project, high-level delegations from Iran and India are set to meet here to discuss various aspects of the project, including the issue of quality, quantity and price of natural gas.

Elaborating on the pricing issue, an official told Business Line that various available options would be examined. The project, which is set to bridge the demand-supply gap considerably in both India and Pakistan, is seeing convergence of views on many issues, he said.

An Iranian team headed by Deputy Minister for International Cooperation, Mr Nejad Hossenian, is to arrive for the bilateral talks on December 28-29.

Preliminary discussions would centre on the blocks offered by Iran for the proposed pipeline project, the development plan for these blocks and whether India would participate in this development plan, the official said

Technical groups from India and Iran had met earlier this month where the Iranian side had stated that it had identified certain blocks for the project. Iran has also agreed to international certification of the reserves, he added. By and large the discussions would be along similar lines as those of the joint working group from India and Pakistan that met recently, the official said.

Further, India has already submitted the draft recommendations of its financial consultant, Ernst & Young, on the project structure. A response from the Iranian side could be expected at the scheduled meeting, he said. The meeting is likely to discuss in detail the technical aspect of the multi-million dollar project.

Recently, the third joint working group meeting between Pakistan and India took place where the two countries expressed confidence that the construction of the pipeline should begin by mid-2007, so that the first gas flow takes place by the end of 2010. The two countries hoped that the project structure and the framework agreement would be finalised by April 2006.

A joint statement issued by the two countries said that the first tripartite Iran-Pakistan-India meeting was expected in February 2006 in Tehran to address issues relating to the project, including an integrated feasibility study, project structure and framework agreement.

India and Pakistan have also agreed on the volumes of the gas that the two countries would draw — 60 million standard cubic meters per day (MMSCMD) and 30 MMSCMD respectively.

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