TEHRAN: Iran will sign a deal with Pakistan to sell gas to the neighbouring country, even if India, a third party to the deal, walked out, a news agency reported Iran's oil minister as saying on Monday.
India stayed away from talks in Tehran on a proposed $7 billion pipeline in September, saying it wanted to agree transit costs through Pakistan on a bilateral basis first.
Iran Oil Minister Gholamhossein Nozari said a delegation from Pakistan had arrived in Tehran for two days.
"Iran will sign a deal with Pakistan, if India does not take part in the project," agency quoted Nozari as saying.
In July, Iran said India and Pakistan had accepted Iran's demand for gas price reviews based on market changes, denying reports by some Indian newspapers that the pipeline talks had failed after Iran demanded a review every three years.
The pipeline would initially carry 60 million cubic metres of gas daily to Pakistan and India, half for each country. The pipeline's capacity would later rise to 150 million cu metres.
Iran said it has completed 18 percent of the work for the pipeline to bring gas from its South Pars field to the Iran-Pakistan border.
Pakistan has yet to begin work on a 1,000 km (625 mile) stretch of the pipeline to link Iran with India.
Iran has the world's second-largest gas reserves after Russia. But sanctions, politics and construction delays have slowed its gas development, and analysts say Iran is unlikely to become a major exporter for a decade.
source:http://geo.tv/12-31-2008/31558.htm (This is a Pakistani media source)
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Gas deal now, Next what a Nuclear Deal?
Topic: Iran ready for gas deal with Pakistan, without India (Read 2504 times)