Pak says will welcome India joining pipeline project

New Delhi, June 14 (PTI) A day after sealing final pacts
with Iran on a long-talked gas pipeline, Pakistan on Monday
said it will welcome India joining the project and will
guarantee safe delivery of the fuel.
With New Delhi boycotting talks on Iran-Pakistan-India
pipeline over pricing and security concerns, Iran and Pakistan
Sunday signed government guarantees - the last of a series
of agreements - that commits the Islamic republic to supply
its eastern neighbour with natural gas from 2014.
"We have kept open the option of India joining the
project (at a later date). We will welcome India (in the
project)," Muhammad Ejaz Chaudhry, Additional Secretary in
Pakistan's Ministry of Petroleum and Natural Resources, told
PTI from Islamabad.
India fears terrorists may hold the pipeline hostage to
their demands and even cut supplies by blowing it to hurt the
interest of world's second fastest growing economy. Also, it
is upset with frequent changes in pricing of gas by Iran and
has boycotted talks for almost three years now.
New Delhi has now proposed talks with Iran to sort out
impediments but the two are yet to agree on mutually
acceptable dates.
"We yesterday signed government guarantees, letters of
comfort and condition precedents for the project," Chaudhry
said.
Pakistan had in July last year signed a gas sale and
purchase agreement and in March signed among other pacts a gas
transportation agreement (GTA). The GTA, which has been
notarised in Paris, provides for internationally acceptable
transit arrangement for gas to be supplied to India.
"We will stand guarantee for safe delivery of gas (at
Pakistan-India border)," Chaudhry said.
Of the 1,035-km length of the pipeline in Pakistan, only
100-odd km would be exclusively for carrying gas to India
while the rest would be transporting fuel for both Pakistan
and India, he said, pointing that it was in Pakistan's own
interest to protect the pipeline.
Iran will supply 21.5 million cubic metres a day of gas
to Pakistan for 25 years. The deal can be extended by five
years and the volume may be increased to 30 million cubic
metres on Pakistan's request.
The Persian Gulf nation has so far constructed 907-km of
the pipeline from the industrial hub Assaluyeh in southern
Iran. It will now start the second leg of the pipeline toward
Pakistan, about 300-km in length, that will carry natural gas
from Iran's South Pars field.
South Pars, which extends from Qatar's North Field, forms
the largest known gas deposit in the world. MORE PTI