International - India & World   

“Both pipeline projects are crucial”

ISLAMABAD: Minister for Petroleum and Natural Gas Murli Deora on Wednesday sought to dispel the impression that India was dragging its feet on the Iran-Pakistan-India (IPI) gas pipeline project and was less interested in this than in the Turkeministan-Afghanistan-Pakistan-India (TAPI) pipeline.

“For us, both are equally important. As far as India is concerned, we want to settle and activate both because the energy demand in India is so much and the oil prices are shooting up,” Mr. Deora said.

The Minister arrived in the Pakistan capital on Tuesday for the two-day four-country talks on the TAPI project that began here on Wednesday. He is scheduled to hold bilateral talks with his Pakistan counterpart, Khwaja Asif, on the IPI on Friday.

Mr. Deora is also scheduled to meet Pakistan People’s Party co-chairman Asif Ali Zardari on Thursday.

“We have done nothing by which it can be said that we are not interested in IPI. In fact, we have held many rounds of talks on the project, and if I was not able to come here for some meetings before, it was only because of the local circumstances. Now that things are better here, I came at once,” he told The Hindu and PTI.

Mr. Deora was dismissive of the suggestion that he had come rushing to Pakistan out of fear that China was getting more interested in the project. During his China visit earlier this month, President Pervez Musharraf said Iran and Pakistan should consider China as a partner in the project if India was not interested in it.

India was formally inducted into the Asian Development Bank-backed TAPI project at Wednesday’s meeting, the 10th meeting of the project’s steering committee.

The main issue on the first day was to finalise a draft inter-governmental framework agreement, to be signed later by the heads of the four governments.

Indian petroleum officials said the finalised draft was awaiting approval by the Turkmenistan government, and should be ready by Thursday.

India has also sought third country certification of the central Asian country’s gas reserves.

At Thursday’s session, the representatives of the four governments are expected to discuss a formula for pricing the gas as it arrives at the Turkmenistan-Afghanistan border. As the main buyers, India and Pakistan are in internal discussions about the formula.

On Friday, Mr. Deora and the Pakistan Minister for Petroleum and Natural Reserves will discuss the tricky issues between them in the IPI project, namely the transit fees and the transportation costs that India must pay to Pakistan under the project agreement.

Last year, the two sides agreed on the principle that the transportation charges will be based on the actual costs of constructing the pipeline and its maintenance. The more difficult issue is the transit fee.

At last year’s talks, India offered 15 cents a million British thermal units (MBTU), while Pakistan wanted 57 cents per MBTU. The Indian position remains unchanged on the argument that as it has agreed to pay the transportation costs separately, the transit fees are merely a kind of royalty or rent, and that Pakistan must charge only a token amount.

Printer friendly page  
Send this article to Friends by E-Mail

Stories in this Section

Israel to return Golan to Syria?
London “plotters” lose appeal
“Silent tsunami” of hunger warned
Efforts to achieve Green Olympics
Heavy casualties in Sri Lanka
Kamal Nath meets UAE leaders
“Both pipeline projects are crucial”
Visit to Chile most fruitful: Pratibha

Copyright © 2008, The Hindu. Republication or redissemination of the contents of this screen are expressly prohibited without the written consent of The Hindu