IPI gas talks to resume on 16th

New Delhi : A final agreement on the Iran-Pakistan-India (IPI) pipeline is being held up due to differences on the delivery point of the gas.

"They (Iran) have said that the delivery point will be the Iranian border, we don’t agree with it," the Union petroleum minister, Mr Murli Deora, told Asian Age.

India wants the delivery point to be on the Pakistan-India border.

Mr Deora said that he even discussed this issue with the top officials of Pakistan. The petroleum minister said that other issues like transit fee and review of gas price among others are small issues.

"These issues can be resolved easily but the main issue is delivery point," said the minister. The Iranian foreign minister, Mr Manouchehr Mottaki, is coming to India on 16 and 17 November. He will be meeting up with the Indian foreign minister, Mr S.M. Krishna, and is also likely to meet with the Prime Minister, Dr Manhohan Singh. The issue of the pipeline is likely to be discussed during the talks.

In the past, India has boycotted some of the meetings on the IPI pipeline and Iran has threatened that it is not going to wait for India to join the pipeline.

In a background note released by the ministry this week at the Economic Editors conference, it was said that India has proposed an early meeting of the Indo-Iran working group on oil and gas. "The meeting is proposed to be held in New Delhi, the dates for which are being finalised," it added. The IPI pipeline project is expected to supply 60 million cubic metres a day (mmscmd) of gas in phase-I to be shared equally between India and Pakistan.

The supply is likely to go up to 90 mmscmd in the second phase of the pipeline. Earlier, according to the Iranian ambassador Mr Seyed Mehdi Nabize-deh, China was interested in the proposed IPI pipeline.