NEW DELHI, Aug 3: Officials of India, Iran and Pakistan appointed an expert committee Thursday to resolve their disagreement over the price of Iranian gas to be sold to the South Asian nations through a multi-billion dollar pipeline.
“An expert committee comprising three members from each side has been formed to look into the issue and report to us at the start of the second round of discussions tomorrow,” said Indian Petroleum Secretary M.S. Srinivasan.
“Differences have narrowed down in the sense that all sides have agreed to discuss in detail the issue at an expert committee level,” Mr Srinivasan was quoted as saying by the Press Trust of India news agency.
Mr Srinivasan is leading the Indian delegation to the two-day talks on pricing and the draft framework agreement.
Iran’s deputy oil minister Nejad Hossenian was heading his team while Pakistan is represented by Ahmad Waqar, secretary of the Ministry of Petroleum and Natural Resources.
The gas will be supplied through a proposed seven-billion dollar pipeline from Iran to India via Pakistan.
Iran stuck to its demand that India and Pakistan pay 7.2 dollars per million British thermal units (mBtu) of gas, 60 percent more than India was willing to pay, an Indian official said.
“India’s offer is a little more than four dollars” per mBtu of gas delivered at its border, he said on condition of anonymity.
