Tehran Warns Pakistan Over Completion of Gas Pipeline

Tehran has warned Islamabad over falling behind the schedule in fullfiling its obligations in a multi-billion-dollar pipeline project that is to take natural gas from Iran to Pakistan.

“Under a contract signed between Iran and Pakistan, the latter had to deliver its commitments by starting import of Iran’s gas supplies in December 2014, but it seems unlikely for Pakistan to take any measure before the end of 2015,” Reza Araqi, the managing director of the National Iranian Gas Company, told reporters in Tehran on Saturday.

Araqi also denied reports that Iran has decided not to fine Islamabad for its long delay in completing the project. Under the Gas Sales Purchase Agreement signed with Iran in 2009, the first flow of gas to Pakistan should have started no later than 31 December 2014.

The Iran-Pakistan (IP) pipeline begins from Assalouyeh on the Persian Gulf, and stretches over 1,100km (684 miles) through southern shores and Iranian Baluchistan before reaching the Pakistani border, with construction on the Iranian side completed two years ago. Pakistan was to build the remaining section through Pakistani Baluchistan and Sindh, but has not even begun the work.

IP pipeline has been a controversial project from the very beginning. It was originally designed as Iran-Pakistan-India (IPI) to take gas to India. The Indian government, citing concerns over Iran sanctions, bowed out of the project, which then became the IP pipeline. Now it seems that only an I-pipeline has remained!

File photo: IP pipeline under construction in Iranian Baluchistan. (IRNA)

Iran-Pakistan Gas Pipeline Shelved

The $1.3 billion Iran-Pakistan gas pipeline has been shelved by Pakistan, dealing a blow to Islamabad's efforts to access cheap energy sources to overcome a crippling power crisis.

“In the absence of international sanctions the project can be completed within three years, but the government cannot take it any further at the moment because international sanctions against Iran are a serious issue,” Pakistani Petroleum Minister Shahid Khaqan Abbasi said today. (NDTV, 25 February)

The agreement for the pipeline was signed in 2009. Former Pakistani president Asif Ali Zardari and his then Iranian counterpart Mahmoud Ahmadinejad had announced the start of the project in February last year. Officials had said at the time it would be completed in 15 months.

File photo: Iran-Pakistan (IP) gas pipeline under construction. (IRNA/NDTV)