Pakistan, Iran begin technical level IPI talks

ISLAMABAD: Senior Pakistani and Iranian experts opened three-day technical level talks on the gas pipeline project in Islamabad on Tuesday, officials said.

The talks on the Iran-Pakistan-India (IPI) gas pipeline follow up on the technical level talks from September.

The head of the National Gas Exports Company Nasrullah Saifi is leading the Iranian side and Hasan Nawab, a senior Petroleum Ministry official, is leading the Pakistani delegation, reported NNI.

The talks will continue for two more days, the officials said. Work on the 2,670-kilometre long IPI will begin in 2007 and will complete by 2010. The estimated cost is $7 billion. Pakistan will annually get $600 million as transit fee from India.

Meanwhile, an Iranian official said that the Iranian delegation visiting Pakistan would finalise the agreement on the pipeline on Friday. He also said that India had not withdrawn itself from the project and hoped that the issue of transit fee would be resolved by the end of October. Iran’s oil minister’s envoy for the pipeline talks, Hojattollah Ghanimifard, said the presidents of the two countries would meet after that to set a date for signing of the contract, Zee News reported, according to APP. Petroleum Secretary Farrakh Qayyum said Pakistan was making efforts to encourage India to return to the pipeline project. “We have called on India to attend talks on the peace pipeline,” said Qayyum, adding that India has expressed hope to rejoin the project. However, India has decided to acquire gas from Turkmenistan via Afghanistan and Pakistan. An Indian expert said India is not ready to sign an agreement with Iran. “Turkmenistan has 169 trillion cubic feet of gas and it can export 35 trillion cubic feet to India. It is a good project because Turkmenistan can provide more gas than Iran,” he told Online.

http://www.dailytimes.com.pk/default.asp?p...-10-2007_pg7_43

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Wow $600 million a year on transit fees, that is a good chunk of money.