— Photo: AP

FOR RIGHT PRICE: Petroleum Minister Murli Deora (right) with Iranian Deputy Oil Minister Nejad Hossenian in New Delhi on Friday.

New Delhi: India, Pakistan and Iran have made a final effort to resolve the deadlock over pricing of gas to be supplied through a transnational pipeline by deciding to appoint an independent international consultant for this issue. This was decided at the third official level tripartite meeting on the Iran-Pakistan-India gas pipeline project, which concluded here on Friday.

Petroleum Minister Murli Deora said the consultants would be asked to suggest a gas price formula and submit their report in about a month's time. Subsequently, officials of the three countries would meet again in Teheran. Though he stressed that India remained committed to the project, officials indicated this was a last effort to revive it. The wide gap between the price sought by Iran and that India and Pakistan were prepared to pay had created an impasse, which appeared difficult to overcome at this stage.

Iranian Deputy Oil Minister M.H. Nejad Hossenian said all sides were unanimous on the importance of the project but the buyers were offering half the price Iran wanted. He also pointed out that both India and Iran would take decisions in their national interest. In this context, he noted that both countries had alternative markets for sale and sources of supplies. Iran could sell gas to European markets, while India could seek gas supplies from Turkmenistan and Qatar.

Pakistan Oil Secretary Ahmed Waqar reiterated that Pakistan and India were one on the issue and were looking at a price affordable and reasonable to their domestic markets.

He said his country was pursuing the prospect of both a bilateral and a trilateral pipeline project. In case India did not join the IPI project then Pakistan would go ahead with the bilateral project with Iran, subject to the price issue having been resolved.

Official sources said an international consultant was needed owing to the vast differences between the buyers and the seller on transportation and gas processing costs.

The tripartite expert committee, formed on Thursday to look into the pricing issue, failed to resolve these differences. Iran continued to insist on a pricing formula linked to the Brent benchmark crude price of $60 per barrel which was 60 per cent more than what India was willing to pay for natural gas.

Sources also maintained that India would not seek international arbitration for the contract signed with Iran last year for the import of five million tonnes per annum of liquefied natural gas over a 25-year period. Iran had said that the project was yet to be ratified and was therefore seeking to renegotiate the price fixed earlier for the LNG supplies, they said.

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