Petroleum Minister to Visit Tehran Soon to Pursue IP Gas Pipeline Project
- September 17, 2013, 6:46 pm
- World News
- 108 Views
TEHRAN, Sept 17 (Online): Pakistani Minister of Petroleum and Natural Resources Shahid Khaqan Abbasi is slated to pay a visit to Iran in the near future to discuss the Iran-Pakistan (IP) gas pipeline project.
Abbasi will soon visit Tehran in the coming days to discuss Iran-Pakistan gas pipeline project,†Adviser to the Prime Minister on National Security and Foreign Affairs Sartaj Aziz said on Tuesday according to FARS news agency
He reiterated that Islamabad will pursue the project and has informed the US of its energy requirements.
In August, the Pakistani petroleum minister said that Islamabad is determined to continue the implementation of the IP gas pipeline project.
Iran and Pakistan officially inaugurated the construction phase of a gas pipeline project in March which is due to take Iran's rich gas reserves to the energy-hungry South Asian nation.
The project kicked off in a ceremony attended by former Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad and his former Pakistani counterpart Asif Ali Zardari at the two countries' shared border region in Iran's Southeastern city of Chabahar.
The 2700-kilometer long pipeline was to supply gas for Pakistan and India which are suffering a lack of energy sources, but India has evaded talks. In 2011, Iran and Pakistan declared they would finalize the agreement bilaterally if India continued to be absent in the meeting.
Iran has already constructed more than 900 kilometers of the pipeline on its soil.
According to the project proposal, the pipeline will begin from Iran's Assalouyeh Energy Zone in the south and stretch over 1,100 km through Iran. In Pakistan, it will pass through Balochistan and Sindh but officials now say the route may be changed if China agrees to the project.
