‘India yet to decide on IPI project’

Published April 17, 2007

NEW DELHI, April 16: India has yet to take a final decision on the proposed $7 billion gas pipeline from Iran via Pakistan, junior external affairs minister Anand Sharma said on Monday.

“The government is studying all the options and (will) take a final decision taking into all factors, including the geo-politics of the situation,” Sharma told a gas conference here.

He said India had three options before it to import gas from Iran — through a pipeline via Pakistan, to ship liquefied natural gas (LNG) through tankers or buy gas from Pakistan's border.

Mr Sharma said the government was looking at trans-national pipelines to import gas to meet India’s energy needs.—Reuters