February 5, 2003	Wednesday	Zul Hijjah 3,1423

KARACHI, Feb 4: The second meeting of Joint Coordination Committee (JCC) between the representatives of Crescent Petroleum of Sharjah, Qatar and Pakistani government officials will be held in April in Pakistan to further discuss Qatar Gas Pipeline Project.

“We have invited them so that various matters could be discussed,” the Managing Director, Sui Southern Gas Company Limited (SSGCL), Munawar Baseer Ahmed told newsmen at the Karachi Chamber of Commerce and Industry (KCCI) on Tuesday.

The Qatar Gas Pipeline Project is one of the three main projects including Iran-Pakistan Gas Pipeline and Turkmenistan-Pakistan Gas Pipeline which had been initiated by the Government of Pakistan in order to meet the future requirement of gas through import.

“The Qatar gas pipeline project is in advance stage,” he said without giving any authentic reply as to which one of the projects is most feasible and appropriate from the standpoint of Pakistan.

He said he cannot say at this moment as to which project is economically viable for Pakistan. However, the government is actively focussing on various aspects of these projects to assess which of these projects is technically and economically feasible to attract solid bank consortium.

“There is still a room for one more pipeline even after deciding one of the projects out of three,” he said adding that Inter State Gas System Limited (ISGSL) is reviewing the economic viability of these three projects very carefully.

He said Qatar will have definitely its minority shareholding and Pakistan would invest its infrastructure in the project.

Referring to the first meeting of JCC held in Doha in last week of January, he said that the JCC deliberated on the gas allocation, pipeline routes, status of Head of Terms (HoT), development and fiscal agreement, exclusive grant to Crescent Petroleum to export Qatari gas, dedication of gas reserves to the project etc.

According to SSGC’s earlier statement in last week of January, the $3 billion project envisages 1,650-km, 44 inch diameter Qatar-Pakistan gas pipeline. It originates from Qatar’s north gas field and after traversing through the territories of transiting countries of UAE and Iran, would finally terminate near Sui in Balochistan. Almost the entire length of the pipeline would be laid sub sea in the shallow waters.

However, SSGC MD said two to three options for pipeline routes are under study. “We have discussed with Qatar and Crescent Petroleum over the extension of Qatar gas pipeline route to India,” he said adding that the Qatari officials had, however, showed their reservation, saying that they were more interested in laying pipeline in Pakistan.

He said that the Pakistani side informed the Qatari counterparts that in case pipeline is extended to India — Pakistan will have the advantage of transit fee and India has a huge consumer market.

On Turkmenistan-Pakistan Gas Pipeline, he said that the joint coordination committee meeting will be held on February 22 and it is expected that the feasibility would be completed in June this year.

On Iran-Pakistan Gas Pipeline, he said that the situation will become clear during the meeting of President Pervez Musharraf with Russian President.