Sudhir Bhargava, additional secretary of India's Ministry of Petroleum and Natural Gas said that India is willing to rejoin the peace pipeline project, ILNA reported .
During his meeting with Iranian deputy oil minister for international and commercial affairs Ahmad Khaledi, Bhargava went on to say that "India welcomes boosting oil and gas ties with Iran."
Bhargava entered Tehran on December 19th 2010. During his two day visit the Indian official discussed oil and gas issues with Iranian oil minister Mr Masoud Mirkazemi, National Iranian Gas Company's MD Javad Oji, and other officials.
The IPI gas pipeline is a proposed 2,775 kilometers long pipeline to deliver natural gas from Iran to Pakistan and India. The three countries conceptualized the Peace Pipeline project in the 1990s to help boost peace and security in the region.
Due to the tense India-Pakistan relations, New Delhi stepped back from the later stages of negotiations, although it has never formally withdrawn from the project.
Iran's proved natural gas reserves are about 1,000 trillion cubic feet, of which 33% are as associated gas and 67% is in non associated gas fields. It stands as the world's second largest gas reserves after Russia.