Iran team visits India for gas pipeline talks
(Wam)
5 August 2005
NEW DELHI — India and Iran yesterday ended the first meeting of their special Joint Working Group (JWG) on the proposed Iran-Pakistan-India gas pipeline and agreed on a roadmap to take the project ahead.
The Iranian delegation to the meeting was led by Dr M. H. Nejadhosseinian, deputy petroleum minister for international affairs. The Indian delegation at this meeting was led by S. C. Tripathi, secretary, india's ministry of petroleum and natural gas.
The Iranian side conveyed to the Indian side details of the visit of the Iranian minister of petroleum Bijan Namdar Zanganeh to Pakistan in July 2005, at the end of which a memorandum of understanding had been signed by the two countries. The Iranian side said Pakistani authorities had agreed to allow the transit of Iranian gas to India through its territory.
The Iranian side assured the Indian side at the two-day meeting here that, based on current estimates, and taking into account domestic demand, Iran would be in a position to meet the requirements of gas of India and Pakistan through the proposed pipeline. They said it was the policy of the Iranian government to give priority to export of gas to neighbouring countries.
As part of the roadmap drawn up yesterday, an Indian technical team would visit Teheran in the third week of August to review the pre-feasibility report prepared jointly by NIGEC and BHP Billiton.
The next meeting of the India — Iran special JWG would be held in Teheran by the end of September.
On the basis of the recommendations of the financial consultants, there would be a preliminary understanding on the preferred project structure by early November 2005. The Iranian minister of petroleum would be visiting India around this time regarding the developments in this regard.
Once an agreement is reached on the project structure among the three countries, the trilateral framework agreement would be finalised by the end of 2005.
Secretary Tripathi briefed the Iranian delegation on the first meeting of the India-Pakistan JWG on pipeline cooperation held last month. He said India and Pakistan had agreed to appoint financial consultants who would advise their respective governments on the project structure.
The Indian official said the financial consultants, based on a thorough review of international best practices in respect of transnational pipelines, would enable the Indian government to take a decision on the project structure and India's role in it. The Indian side was very hopeful that a 'framework agreement'' between the governments of India, Iran and Pakistan would be finalised by the end of the current year.
He said that as the project was the first transnational pipeline project in which India was actively involved, the financial consultant's inputs were required to obtain an understanding of the merits and demerits of various alternative project structures as also the attendant technical, financial, commercial and legal aspects of the proposal which would yield a safe and secure world-class project to which all three governments namely the Iranian, the Pakistani and the Indian, were committed.
The Iranian side agreed to cooperate with the financial consultant appointed by the Indian government. They also said that they would be very happy to see India as a founding member of the international consortium to be set up to handle all aspects of the project after the framework agreement had been finalised.
The two sides agreed that the regular meetings of the JWG between India and Pakistan on pipeline cooperation and the special JWG on the Iran-Pakistan-India pipeline project, interspersed with regular meetings at ministerial-level, would facilitate the examination of various aspects of the pipeline project which was very important for the interests of the three countries concerned.
The visiting Iranian dignitaries called on the Indian petroleum minister, Mani Shankar Aiyar who had conveyed to them India's deep commitment to the project which was viewed as an important factor in India's energy security interests.