ISLAMABAD, Nov 18: Pakistan on Monday resumed talks on a “Gas Sales and Purchase Agreement” with Crescent Petroleum of Sharjah for the import of natural gas from Qatar as Crescent said it was no more interested in gas sales to India.

Both sides separately told Dawn that “progress” was made in the talks on the draft GSPA of Gulf-South Asia (GUSA) Pipeline Project that was submitted to the government of Pakistan by Crescent Petroleum last year.

“We are talking about the Qatar-to-Pakistan gas pipeline only and we are not interested in taking the Qatari gas to India,” Mohammed E. Makawi, the project director of Gulf-South Asia (GUSA) Pipeline Project, told Dawn.

In the talks on Monday, secretary petroleum Abdullah M. Yousaf and Makawi led the Pakistani and Crescent sides respectively.

The UAE-based energy firm would hold technical talks with the managing director of Interstate Gas Company Limited (IGCL) and give a project presentation in Karachi on Tuesday. Pakistan established IGCL last year to specifically look after gas import options from Turkmenistan, Iran and Qatar.

Munammwar Basir, Managing director of both Sui Southern Gas Company and Interstate Gas Company Limited; Salim Abbas Jilani, chairman Sui Northern Gas Pipelines Limited (SNGPL); and Naeem Malik, the director-general gas, were also part of the Pakistani negotiating team.

“We are keeping all options open which are in the pre- feasibility mode and would take along which suits us best and keeps our rights protected,” Munawwar Basir told Dawn after the talks.

Basir, who was spearheading the corporatization of national power utility Wapda before taking over as MD SSGC, said all the three import options also contained the sale of gas onwards to India as well and Pakistan was positive towards all options.

“Pakistan would get transit fee if the pipelines finally goes to India but the main point of our discussions was to ensure the provision of Pakistan’s right to offtake or inject in case of shortage and surplus respectively,” Munawwar said.

He said Pakistan was surplus in gas at the moment but would face shortages in 2007 “if we don’t have another discovery like Sui”. The Sui gas field, discovered in early 1950s in Balochistan, had total recoverable reserves of around 10 trillion cubic feet, more than 60 per cent of which has already been consumed.

“There is a lot of talk about many international options that could carry 2 to 3 billion cubic feet per day (BCFD) to India and Pakistan has positive outlook for all the three,” Basir said.

“We resumed talks on gas sales and purchase agreement today and are going to continue discussions on the same draft with the newly-appointed managing director of Interstate Gas Company to move the project forward,” said Makawi.

Makawi said his company had finalized talks with the Qatari ministry of petroleum and wanted to sign agreements simultaneously in Pakistan and Qatar shortly.

When asked about the tariff level Qatar had agreed to with Crescent Petroleum, Makawi said tariff had not been finalized as yet. “That is my expectation,” he said when asked whether he could see signing of GSPA with Islamabad in the near future.

Asked about the prospects of GUSA project when two other projects were also being pursued vigorously that could also finally deliver gas in India, he said Crescent was not interested in gas sales to India and was talking about the Qatar-Pakistan pipeline only.

He said that his talks with IGCL in Karachi would be very important where his side would push for formal signing of the agreement.

Another official who attended the meeting said that both parties wanted to take the GUSA project forward for which they had already signed a memorandum of understanding.