ISLAMABAD, Sept 16: Pakistan and the Russian gas giant — Gazprom — has decided to start active cooperation in the field of oil and gas for which a Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) is expected to be signed on October 9 in Islamabad, says a senior government official.

Secretary, Petroleum, Ahmad Waqar told this correspondent that Russian firm would be responsible for providing expertise, training and the construction of the storage facilities. “Prime Minister Shaukat Aziz will witness the signing ceremony,” he said.

Responding to a question, he said that the Russian firm would be welcomed to finance the Iran-Pakistan-India (IPI) gas pipeline project alone or with the help of other international companies.

“Potential exists to set up an international consortium for a three-nation gas pipeline project,” he said.

He also said that Pakistan has set an 18-month period to complete real feasibility study and necessary financing arrangements to start the construction of $7.4 billion Pakistan-India-Iran gas pipeline project by the middle of 2007.

“Our major effort is to complete the real feasibility of the IPI in nine months in order to get the idea about the route, size of the pipeline and the price estimate,” he said.

Later, another 9 months, he pointed out, would be required to complete the documentation, financing arrangements and the finalization of the project structure and this whole exercise would be completed in next 18 months to start this massive project.

He said the government was hoping to shortly have the pre-feasibility study of the project before undertaking the real feasibility study and completing the financing arrangements.

The secretary petroleum also said that a trilateral framework agreement was expected to be signed by the end of 2005.

“We are targeting the middle of 2010 when gas would start flowing into the country,” he said.

Asked about the opposition by the United States, the secretary petroleum said, he could only talk about the economic and professional side of the project and that political issues were dealt by higher government authorities.

Pakistan and India jointly required a maximum of two trillion cubic meters (2-tcm) of gas over the next 30 years, following Iranian commitment that it had allocated about 14-tcm of gas for export.

The joint working group also agreed to lay a 56-inch diameter pipeline as they would need a total of about 5.6 bcfd (billion cubic feet per day) of gas by 2015.

The two sides also agreed to hold the next meeting of joint working group in New Delhi in the second week of November.