Khaleej Times Online - Pakistan to import 5b cubic feet gas per day under $3.6b project

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Pakistan to import 5b cubic feet gas per day under $3.6b project

BY A CORRESPONDENT

22 October 2007

ISLAMABAD — Islamabad has communicated to Teheran that Pakistan is ready to import 5 billion cubic feet gas per day under the proposed $3.6 billion Iran-Pakistan (IP) gas line to make the project more economically viable in the backdrop that India was currently pursuing a wait and see policy, a senior government official said.

Both countries ended their technical talks at the joint working group level in Islamabad yesterday. Dr Ghanimi Fard, the special representative on gas project, led the Iranian side to the talks while Secretary Petroleum Farrukh Qayum led the Pakistan team.

Under the earlier proposed $7.3 billion Iran-Pakistan-India (IPI) mega project, Islamabad was to import 3.15 billion cubic feet (BCF) per day from Iran (1.05 BCF per day under phase 1 and 2.1 BCF under phase II). However, India was to import 1.05 BCF per day in phase-I and 3.20 BCF in phase-II). Pakistan has also informed the Iranian authorities that the gas to be imported from Iran could also possibly be exported to China in the form of LNG due to the fact that the western part of the China was facing energy crisis. If that happens, the project would become further economically viable, the official said. The LNG terminal would be made in Gwadar where the proposed IP pipeline would reach and the piped gas would be converted into LNG for export to China.

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