NEW DELHI: India may have been effectively eased out of the Iran-Pakistan-India gas pipeline. Pakistan and Iran agreed in Islamabad on Sunday to lay a gas pipeline from Iran to Pakistan with a higher offtake for Pakistan from the earlier 2.1 billion cubic feet per day (bcfd) to 2.8 bcfd which means that there will be really nothing left over for India to buy in the 3.2 bcfd capacity pipeline.

Iranian deputy oil minister Hadi Nejad Hosseinian, who signed the deal with the Pakistani petroleum secretary in Islamabad, arrived in New Delhi on Monday afternoon for talks with the Indian government on Tuesday. Iranian oil minister Kazem Vaziri-Hamaneh was also making a sudden visit to Delhi on Tuesday evening for talks with India. India believes the Iranian minister will try to push for a quick agreement on the pipeline, but India has said it refuses to be rushed into the deal.

The confusing signals from Iran have confounded Indian officials who have been preparing to work on pricing and offtake for an agreement. Indian officials said things were proceeding according to schedule until very recently, when the Iranians stepped up the heat, insisting on a quick agreement.

In Pakistan, Hosseinian proposed a second pipeline to accommodate India’s needs if India decided to join up in future, which is unlikely to be accepted by India. New Delhi has traditionally opposed a second pipeline because it would increase the vulnerability of the Indian pipeline to disruption threats. The new developments were unexpected, especially as petroleum secretary M Srinivasan had gone on record only on Sunday to say that he expected the pipeline to be a done deal by June.

Senior government sources asserted India had not indicated in any manner that it wanted out of the project. In fact, claimed officials, at the meetings India was better prepared than the other two sides.—-By arrangement with The Times of India