NEW DELHI, July 10: Oil ministers from India, Iran and Pakistan are scheduled to meet in Tehran early next month to discuss the price at which Iran will sell natural gas through a planned pipeline that would link the countries, an Indian official said on Monday.
The two days of meetings, scheduled to start on Aug 3, are to be followed by talks on how to actually build the pipeline, which would snake through 2,775 kilometers of often rugged terrain and cross heavily militarized frontiers, the official said.
But the project is already facing disagreements over the price of gas.
Iran wants the price linked to international prices, and is offering gas to India at a price of US$7.2 (euro6) per million British thermal units, with a 3 percent annual increase, the official said, speaking on condition of anonymity because was not authorized to talk to the media.
However, New Delhi says it’s only ready to pay up to US$4.25 (euro3.54) per million BTUs for the desperately needed gas, the official said.
India’s economy is forecast to grow at more than 7 per cent annually over the next few years, and its energy demand is only expected to grow.
The pipeline, which would supply around 60 million cubic meters of gas a day to India and up to 30 million cubic meters a day to Pakistan, would help meet New Delhi’s growing energy needs, provide Islamabad with hundreds of millions of dollars (euros) in transit fees, and give Iran a larger slice of an important market.
Officials say that if all goes as planned, it would be up and running by 2011.
First proposed by Iran in 1996, the project never got off the ground because of Indian concerns over its security in Pakistan. However, relations between India and Pakistan have thawed and the two are not taking part in a slow-moving peace process.
India has already held several rounds of talks on the technical, financial and legal aspects of the pipeline deal separately with Iran and Pakistan.
Officials estimate that building the pipeline will cost around US$8 billion (euro6.6 billion).
