ISLAMABAD, June 22: The government on Thursday expressed surprise over a statement of Iranian Deputy Minister for Oil Dr Hadi Nejad Hosseinian over gas price for the Iran-Pakistan-India pipeline, saying that the issue was still under discussion among the three countries and negotiations were far from being exhausted.

Mr Nejad is reported to have said that Iran would not sell its gas at knock-down rates to Pakistan and India and that the tripartite agreement was not Tehran’s absolute obligation.

A spokesman for the petroleum and natural resources ministry said Pakistan had all along taken the position that the price should be such that the project remained financially viable.

The negotiations were set to resume at the next trilateral meeting scheduled at the end of July in New Delhi, he said.

He said the producers of gas in Pakistan, including multinational corporations, did not enjoy subsidy from the government. The producers got the contractual price in accordance with the terms and conditions of concession agreements, he said.

He said the project was a commercial deal that must be acceptable not only to the seller but to the buyers as well.