Baku, Azerbaijan, Dec.14
By Fatih Karimov - Trend:
Iranian oil minister has annulled a plan, ratified by the former administration for financing the Iran-Pakistan gas pipeline project, the Mehr News Agency reported on December 14.
The plan had envisaged that Iran will pay $250 million-$500 million to help Pakistan to build the pipeline on its territory.
Mehr has not provided further details in this respect.
On December 10, Zanganeh announced that the country will not supply Pakistan with natural gas at a discount price.
Reducing the price of gas to be delivered by the Iran-Pakistan pipeline, extending time for building Pakistan's side of the pipeline and financing about $500 million by Iran were suggested by Khaqan Abbasi in the meeting.
He said that Pakistan is committed to building a multi-billion-dollar gas pipeline from neighboring Iran, but the threat of international sanctions makes the task difficult.
The Iranian oil minister had previously said that he is not optimistic about Tehran's gas exports to Islamabad.
APP on Nov. 28 quoted Shahid Khaqan Abbasi as saying that Pakistan will find an opportunity to complete the proposed gas pipeline project within a year.
Following inking of a deal on Tehran's nuclear program between Iran and world powers, the current conditions bring the proposed Iran-Pakistan gas pipeline project closer to materialization.
The peace pipeline project was originally initiated between Iran and Pakistan. Later India expressed an interested in joining this project.
The Iran-Pakistan gas pipeline projected to cost $1.2-1.5 billion, would enable the export of 21.5 million cubic meters of Iranian natural gas to Pakistan on a daily basis.