The Hindu Business Line : ‘No time-frame for India to join pipeline project’

Riyadh, Nov 15 Iran on Thursday said that it had not set any time-frame for India to formally join the tri-national - Iran-Pakistan-India - gas pipeline project.

Speaking to presspersons at the sidelines of the Third OPEC Summit here, Mr Gholamhossein Nozari, Iran’s Oil Minister, said, “We have not set any deadline for India to join the pipeline project.”

Mr Nozari’s statement gathers significance in the backdrop of the recent bilateral meetings between Iran and Pakistan on the project. The two nations have formalised the content of the bilateral understanding to export gas from Iran to Pakistan. The two are expected to execute the contract shortly.

Besides, reports have been coming in that Iran had given India a deadline of four months to formally agree to join the project. The Iranian Minister also hoped that India would not come under US pressure and leave the multi-billion dollar project.

Since September this year India has not attended any of the meetings on the project as it wants to resolve pending bilateral issues with Pakistan on proposed pipeline including the issue of transit fee.

“What we are told is that India have kept their interest in the project. Both Iran and Pakistan expect and welcome India to join the project,” he added.

Transit fee

While India and Pakistan have reached a broad understanding on the transportation tariff payable to Pakistan for bringing the gas through the pipeline passing in that country, no agreement has yet been reached on payment of a separate transit fee to Pakistan. Differences continue on transit fee with Islamabad seeking $0.493 per mBtu while New Delhi has offered $0.15 per mBtu for providing security and right of way.

The Iranian Oil Minister hoped that the India and Pakistan would resolve their differences soon. Iran has already started work on the project. “We are anyway implementing our part of the pipeline project,” he said.

The three countries are going to build separately the pipeline segments falling under their territories. The proposed pipeline would transport 90 million standard cubic metres per day of gas, out of which 30 million would be for internal consumption in Iran. The remaining was to be split equally between India and Pakistan.

Iran plans to begin export of gas to Pakistan by end of 2013. The total length of the pipeline is 2,670 km.

On the Turkmenistan-Afganistan-Pakistan-India (TAPI) pipeline project and whether it would be a rival to IPI project, Mr Nozari said “We have to see what is the gas demand of India and whether TAPI alone can meet it.”

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