Iran-Pakistan-India Pipeline Deal Likely By End-June

ISLAMABAD: A final agreement on the $7 billion Iran-Pakistan-India pipeline is likely to be reached by end-June, a senior Pakistani energy ministry official said Wednesday.

"We hope that something on those lines happen. We are on track for that," said Jehangir Khan, senior joint secretary at Pakistan’s Ministry of Petroleum and Natural Resources, told Dow Jones Newswires in a phone interview, adding that talks are still underway in Tehran.

Khan said two days of technical discussions, which started Sunday, are being followed by negotiations by the Joint Working Group focusing on gas sales.

Additionally, India and Pakistan are also likely to discuss the pipeline transit fee that India will pay to Pakistan.

"We have had one set of talks on transit fee with India, though there is no agreement yet," Khan said.

Iran, Pakistan and India have been talking since 1990 about building a 2,700- kilometer cross-country natural gas pipeline, but negotiations have been tough, partly due to disagreements about the price Tehran wants for the gas.

If it is built, the pipeline is expected to cost about $7 billion and will carry up to 150 million standard cubic meters of gas a day.