28 Mar 2024
Monday 25 November 2013 - 15:39
Story Code : 66938

Iran-Sextet N. deal to accelerate implementation of IP gas pipeline project

TEHRAN (FNA)- The nuclear deal recently signed between Iran and the G5+1 (US, Britain, France, China, Russia and Germany) would accelerate expedition of the construction of Iran-Pakistan (IP) gas pipeline, Pakistani media reports said.


Islamabad hopes to invite China and Russia to finance the project that had been in the doldrums.

This deal will also help Pakistan to import oil from Iran, which was suspended in 2010 after the US and European Union imposed sanctions on Tehran. As a result, international banks had also refused to open Letter of Credits to import oil and therefore supplies were suspended, Pakistan's Tribune said.

Officials say the Geneva deal would help Pakistani and Iranian energy ministers, who are scheduled to meet for the first time in Turkey, to resume talks in a positive way.

Islamabad has been facing a delay in the important energy project as the government failed in securing funds for the project. The incumbent PML-N government was also forced to request the Iranian government to completely finance the project.

The first gas flow was scheduled for December 2014. However, the possibility of US sanctions caused such trepidation that even the Oil and Gas Development Company Limited (OGDCL) and National Bank of Pakistan (NBP) had refused to provide funding for the project.

Pakistan would now be able to import pipeline material and compressors required for its development. Officials claim that the country can now buy material at competitive rates as the Geneva deal has opened way to award the contract to any party.

Iran and Pakistan officially inaugurated the construction phase of a gas pipeline project in March which is due to take Iran's rich gas reserves to the energy-hungry South Asian nation.

The project kicked off in a ceremony attended by former Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad and his former Pakistani counterpart Asif Ali Zardari at the two countries' shared border region in Iran's Southeastern city of Chabahar.

The 2700-kilometer long pipeline was to supply gas for Pakistan and India which are suffering a lack of energy sources, but India has evaded talks. In 2011, Iran and Pakistan declared they would finalize the agreement bilaterally if India continued to be absent in the meeting.

Iran has already constructed more than 900 kilometers of the pipeline on its soil.

According to the project proposal, the pipeline will begin from Iran's Assalouyeh Energy Zone in the South and stretch over 1,100 km through Iran. In Pakistan, it will pass through Baluchistan and Sindh but officials now say the route may be changed if China agrees to the project.

By Fars News Agency

 

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