The ever-increasing energy needs have compelled India to rejoin the transnational pipeline emanating from Iran and transiting Pakistan thus reviving the IPI Gas Project, Online learnt on Sunday.
A well-placed Indian diplomat told Online that his government was actively contemplating looking back on the option of IPI. He claimed that India had never abandoned the project, officially. “It was just gone down on the priority list mainly due to security concerns in Pakistan,” he added.
Earlier, India had practically abandoned the Iran-Pakistan-India Gas Pipeline project for obvious reasons of entering into a nuclear deal with the US.
After India disembarked the trilateral mechanism for IPI, the pipeline was naturally left as only Iran-Pakistan (IP) gas pipeline.
According to the diplomat, the announcement to give effect to the rejuvenation of IPI was expected during Indian Prime Minister Manmohan Singh’s visit to Pakistan in the near future. Singh had accepted President Asif Ali Zardari’s invitation on Sunday to visit Pakistan on mutually convenient dates.
“We are an energy-deficient country and to sustain our high growth rate and ensure energy security, we need energy from every possible source,” the diplomat observed.
A Pakistani official privy to the IP Gas Pipeline project pointed out that the latest Indian overtures on IPI could be just bluffs again to appease Iran. Iranians have realised that India went out of the IPI due to the pressure from the US and was anxiously pursuing the American backed Turkmenistan-Afghanistan-Pakistan-India (TAPI) project.
Iran has also gone on record saying that it was no longer holding talks with India on IPI pipeline but has signed a bilateral accord with Pakistan on the project.
Under the deal finalised in March last year, Iran will supply 750 million cubic feet of gas to Pakistan daily by 2014.
Indian diplomats, however, tried to dispel the impression that Washington had been exerting pressure on India not to pursue the IPI pipeline project in view of Iran’s controversial nuclear programme. Important issues concerning the IPI project, such as gas pricing, delivery point of gas, project structure, transportation tariff payment, transit fee for the passage of natural gas through Pakistan and security of supply, had still not been sorted out, he added. “Once our concerns are addressed satisfactorily, we will have no hesitation in going ahead with the project,” he said.
The proposed 1,600 km project, envisaging supply of gas from Iran to India via Pakistan, has been hanging fire for about a couple of decades now due to Indian aversions to have a pipeline through Pakistan and above all the anti-Iran US pressure.
In the aftermath of the April 2003 peace initiative, India has agreed to consider the project if Pakistan is willing to look at it in the context of larger economic relations.
The IP Gas pipeline project was conceived in 1993, which was later proposed to be extended in India.
There are three different routes under consideration for the Iran-India gas pipeline via deep sea, shallow water and over-land.
Feasibility study for the deep sea route is being conducted by Snam Progetti of Italy, while that of overland route is being conduct by BHP of Australia. BHP has completed the phase-I of the study. The feasibility study for the shallow water route is to be conducted by GAZPROM of Russia but they have not yet started the study.
