Gas price is going to decide the future of the $8 billion tri-nation gas pipeline from Iran to India via Pakistan. Alongside, as reported first by FE on Monday, New Delhi has skipped the crucial tri-nation talks on the Iran-Pakistan-India (IPI) pipeline, which will begin in Tehran from September 27.
However, despite its absence at the tri- nation talks, India has expressed hope that the long-delayed IPI gas pipeline will become a reality if buyers and seller agree upon the price of fuel.
?I think if the price of the gas is agreed upon, the pipeline will become a reality,? finance minister P Chidambaram said at an interactive session at the Peterson Institute for International Economics in Washington on Wednesday.
However, irrespective of Indian participation, Iran and Pakistan are going ahead with the meeting. ?There is no politics. We wish to have a pipeline… And all three countries, to the best of my knowledge, are agreed in principle on the need and feasibility of the pipeline. What is still not resolved is the price of the gas,? he said.
The official reason cited by India for not attending the meet was that New Delhi and Islamabad needed to first resolve bilateral issues relating to the transit fee for the part of the pipeline passing through Pakistan as also the ?price revision? clause proposed by Tehran.
Both India and Pakistan are not in favour of the price being revised every five years.
The proposed pipeline would initially carry 60 million metric cubic meters of gas per day of gas to Pakistan and India, 30 mmscmd for each country. Under the plan, the pipeline?s capacity would be increased to 150 mmscmd at a later date. On its part, Tehran has already started construction on its part of the pipeline for transporting gas to Iran-Pakistan border from its Pars gas fields. Iran has the world?s second-largest gas reserves after Russia.