Pakistan officially asks more natural gas from Iran

TEHRAN,Nov. 19 (MNA) -- Pakistan officially demands more natural gas from Iran, an Iranian oil ministry official said. "In recent months Pakistan has officially requested (to import) more natural gas from Iran. Pakistan wants to increase gas importation from 21.5 million cubic meters to 30 mcm until 2014”, Iranian Deputy Oil Minister Javad Oji said. Oji also denied some media reports that Islamabad has requested Iran to decrease the price of its gas export to Pakistan. “We have not received any formal request from Pakistan on revision of gas price of Iran”. Washington has pressured Islamabad to abandon the gas pipeline project which is destined to transfer Iran’s to Pakistan. However, Islamabad has said it desperately needs gas imports to meet its energy shortages. In June 2009, Tehran and Islamabad signed a 25-year agreement based on which Iran agreed to export 7.8 billion cubic meters of natural gas to Pakistan per annum through pipeline. According to the agreement, the pumping of gas will start from February 2014. Last October, Oji announced that a new round of negotiations was underway to increase gas exports to Pakistan. Earlier this month, Managing Director of National Iranian Gas Exporting Company Hossein Bidarmaghz expressed hope that Iran would be ready to start exporting gas to Pakistan from 2012. According to Bidarmaghz, construction of the gas pipeline in Iran’s territory will be finished next year. He also denied reports that India has been omitted from negotiations on the gas pipeline project, adding that China is demanding to import Iran’s gas too. Iran ranks second in the world in natural gas resources after Russia with available gas reserves estimated at over 33 trillion cubic meters.