ISLAMABAD, June 28: Iranian Oil Minister Bijan Namdar Zanganeh will be visiting Pakistan on July 6 and 7 to discuss construction of $4.2 billion Iran-Pakistan-India (IPI) gas pipeline project.

Petroleum ministry sources told Dawn that the dates for the visit of the Iranian oil minister had been confirmed and he would discuss issues relating to price of gas, security of the pipeline and transit fee with the Pakistani authorities.

The Iranian minister was earlier scheduled to visit Islamabad last month on the invitation of his Pakistani counterpart Amanullah Khan Jadoon. The visit was, however, postponed owing to presidential run-off elections in Iran.

Mr Zanganeh’s visit will be followed in August by a meeting of Pakistan-India working group on the gas pipeline project, comprising the petroleum secretaries of two countries, in New Delhi.

The Indian and Pakistani oil secretaries will exchange information on financial structuring, technical, commercial, legal and other issue to realize a safe and secure world class project.

The working group was constituted early this month at a meeting of oil ministers of Pakistan and India in Islamabad. The group will alternatively meet in Islamabad and New Delhi.

Sources said Indian Oil Minister Mani Shankar Aiyar had invited his Pakistani counterpart to visit New Delhi in the first week of August. Mr Jadoon, however, rejected the invitation owing to his engagements relating to Pakistan’s Independence Day celebrations.

Sources said Pakistan had now proposed to India that the meeting of the two oil ministers should be held after the working group session to take the project discussions forward.

A senior government official said the reports of some major gas discoveries in India would not negatively impact the IPI project as speculated by some quarters.

He said the Indian minister had stated that the reports of gas discoveries were of preliminary nature and could not be confirmed unless detailed data analysis and studies were completed.

Some reports in the Indian media have suggested that India may have to give second thought to the IPI project because of two discoveries of estimated 20 trillion cubic feet and 14 trillion cubic feet reserves.

India had formally shown interest early this month to participate in three proposed gas pipelines from Turkmenistan, Iran and Qatar for multiplying gas supplies, instead of alternative options to each other.