| Bangladesh has shown keen interest on Iran offer to join the proposed Iran-Pakistan-India pipeline project, known also as the Peace Pipeline. | |
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Iran has suggested involving Bangladesh in its planned cross-border gas pipeline, which will guarantee supply to energy-deficient Pakistan and India. "Since the tri-nation gas pipeline is supposed to reach up to the Indian city of Kolkata, Bangladesh can be linked to the grid to secure gas supply by Iran," a senior official with the Bangladesh Finance Ministry's Economic Relations Division (ERD) said, Pakistan Views reported. The ERD official said Iran has indicated that the pipeline may stretch up to Kolkata and urged Bangladesh to explore the possibility of its inclusion. "It is really a great opportunity for Bangladesh as the country's recoverable gas reserve would start drying up from 2013," he said. At present, Bangladesh has a shortage of nearly 300 million cubic feet (mcf) of gas supply per day against total demand of 2300 mcf of gas. Nearly 87 percent of Bangladesh's electricity is generated from natural gas a scarce resource state-run oil and gas corporation Petrobangla said could deplete by 2015. A senior Petrobangla official said the government should diversify its import sources in view of the country's limited reserves of 12-tcf and the demand for energy that is surging past 8 percent a year. He said, "I think gas import from Iran is a viable option for Dhaka." He said that the government should join negotiations with Iran, Pakistan and India for the proposed IPI pipeline. "Kolkata is very close to Bangladesh. It will be easier for the government to bring the pipeline to our border." The IPI gas pipeline is a proposed 2,775-kilometer pipeline to deliver natural gas from Iran to Pakistan and India. The negotiations have been going on for many years involving Iran, Pakistan and India. Iran's enormous gas reserves are ideally suited to supply massive amounts of gas to both Pakistan and India on long-term basis, thus helping ease the energy requirements of the two giant developing nations. Iran, Pakistan, and India conceptualized the Peace Pipeline project in the 1990s, to help boost peace and security in the region. Negotiations over the project were initiated in 1994 between the three countries but there were obstacles to closing the three-way deal due to tension between India and Pakistan. Iran's proved natural gas reserves are about 1,000 trillion cubic feet, of which 33 percent are as associated gas and 67 percent is in non associated gas fields. It stands the world's second-largest reserves after Russia. |
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