A senior Iranian official has announced the planned visit by a Pakistani delegation to the country for a high-profile natural gas deal, Iranian media reported on Tuesday.
National Iranian Gas Exports Company (NIGEC) Managing Director Alireza Kameli said that the Pakistani delegation’s planned visit was aimed at finalising gas agreements between Tehran and Islamabad. Kameli said initial agreements were made over negotiations between the Iranian petroleum minister and Pakistani officials during a recent visit by Iran’s President Hassan Rouhani and some of his cabinet members to Islamabad.
“In the negotiations, it was decided for the Pakistani delegation to finalise the agreements soon during their trip to Iran so that the export of Iranian gas to Pakistan begins,” IRNA quoted the official as having said.
On Saturday, the Iranian president told reporters in Islamabad that a pipeline which had for long been projected to take gas to Pakistan had already been completed on the Iranian side. Rouhani said that this had put the Islamic Republic in a position to provide its southeastern neighbour with natural gas within only a few months. While Iran has completed its part of the gas pipeline project with a total investment of above $2 billion, Pakistan has fallen behind the target to take delivery of gas, initially scheduled for 2014. The joint project was launched in 2010 and aims to construct 1,800 kilometers (over 1,100 miles) of pipeline from Iran to Pakistan. Iran plans to deliver 21.5 mcm/d of gas to Pakistan through the project.
Trade between Pakistan and Iran fell to $432 million in 2010-11 from $1.32 billion in 2008-09, according to the Trade Development Authority of Pakistan. Energy-starved Pakistan suffers about 12 hours of power cuts per day and is keen to import Iranian oil, gas, iron and steel. Iran is interested in Pakistani textiles, surgical goods, sports goods and agricultural products.