Iran, Pakistan finalise gas exports contract
Iran and Pakistan have finalised a contract for a
multi-billion-dollar gas export deal scheduled to be signed within a
month, the Iranian oil ministry’s news service Shana reported on
Saturday.
“The content of the Peace Pipeline contract has been finalised and
all the points prepared by the two sides’ legal experts have been
re-read and agreed by the two sides,” Iran’s deputy minister in charge
of the project, Hojatollah Ghanimifard, was quoted as saying.
“The remaining points which are technical issues... must be studied
within a month to make the contract ready for the simultaneous signing
by the heads of the two countries,” Ghanimifard said.
Tehran and Islamabad have neared a conclusion to the contract in the
absence of India, a potential party to the deal.
Talks on the 7.4-billion-dollar project to supply gas to India
through a 2,600-kilometre (1,615-mile) pipeline began in 1994 but were
stalled by tensions between India and Pakistan.
Talks resumed early in 2004 along with peace moves between India and
Pakistan but dragged because of New Delhi’s opposition to periodic price
reviews.
Tehran, Sunday, AFP |