The multi-million-dollar Iran-Pakistan (IP) gas pipeline project is unlikely to be completed by the contractual deadline of December 2014 because of the political transition in Islamabad, officials stated on Wednesday.
The project was delayed because important approvals for beginning construction of the pipeline could not be obtained from the caretaker government, petroleum secretary Abid Saeed was quoted as saying, by Khaleej Times.
This delay is expected to aggravate Pakistan’s energy crisis. Work on the project inside Pakistan has been suspended because of polls and transfer of power, he said. “On certain issues related to the IP project, the Petroleum Ministry needs to get approval from the next government,” he added.
Inter-State Gas Company Managing Director Mobin Solat said Iran had completed 900 km of a 1,150-km pipeline from a gas field to Iranshehr.
Iran is working on another 250-km section from Iranshehr to the border at Gabd and about 60 percent of the work had been completed.
Construction on the Pakistani side could not begin because the engineering, procurement and construction firms required sovereign guarantees for mobilising machinery and workforce, Solat said. The Pakistan government needs to issue a sovereign guarantee to Iran’s Tadbir Energy, the engineering and construction contractor, and this has been delayed till the new elected government takes over, Saeed said.
