Thaindian News

Tehran, May 18 (IANS) Iran and Pakistan will hold the last round of the Iran-Pakistan-India gas pipeline talks in Tehran next week, the special representative of Iran’s oil minister to the talks has said.
“A Pakistani delegation headed by Minister of Petroleum and Natural Resources Asim Hussain is to arrive in Tehran May 23 to finalise the Peace Pipeline deal based on the new price formula,” Hojjatollah Ghanimifard was quoted as saying by Mehr news agency.

Iran has suggested a new price formula which was approved by Pakistan’s cabinet April 10.

“The two sides are to set the date of signing the final contract in the meeting,” he added.

Pakistan will import as much as 750 million cubic feet of gas per day from Iran to meet its growing energy needs.

The Iran-Pakistan-India gas pipeline, also known as the IPI pipeline or the Peace Pipeline, is a proposed 2,775-km pipeline to deliver natural gas from Iran to Pakistan and India.

The project is expected to greatly benefit India and Pakistan, which do not have sufficient natural gas to meet their rapidly increasing domestic demand for energy.

The negotiations over the $7.4 billion pipeline project were initiated in 1994 but it faced repeated delays on concerns over security along the Pakistani route, pricing mechanisms and tensions between Pakistan and India.