India Turns to Iran for Gas

摘要

India again appears to be turning to Iran as it looks to any and all avenues to boost gas supply to meet soaring demand. Indian Oil Minister Veerappa Moily said on Mar. 24 that New Delhi is pursuing imports through the Iran-Pakistan-India and Turkmenistan-Afghanistan-Pakistan-India pipelines, despite major security concerns. India held its last meeting on the Iranian pipeline scheme in June 2007, and was understood to have pulled out in 2009 after signing a civilian nuclear agreement with the US. But it never said so officially, and Moily now says the pipe remains important from an energy security perspective, and that talks are underway to finalize gas prices, transit fees and landfall point. Work on the Pakistani leg of the pipe, designed to deliver at least 750 million cubic feet per day (7.75 billion cubic meters per year) of Iranian gas, officially started earlier this month (WGI Mar.13'13).