ISLAMABAD - A Pakistani delegation will visit Moscow next week to discuss with Russian gas giant Gazprom the prospects of securing funding and technical support for the multibillion dollars Iran-Pakistan Gas Pipeline Project.
According to sources in the Petroleum Ministry, a technical delegation comprising senior officials of the Ministry as well as the Sui gas company would visit Moscow on April 2 to discuss the IP project with the high-ups of Gazprom.
The move came after Gazprom expressed its interest in the project, saying that it was ready to join the IP gas pipeline project either as the pipeline operator or also participating in its construction.
The pipeline project, when initially mooted in 1994, had proposed to carry gas from Iran to Pakistan and India. But India eventually withdrew from talks over repeated disputes on prices and transit fees. The 900-kilometre (560-mile) pipeline is being built between Asalooyeh in southern Iran and Iranshahr near the border with Pakistan and will carry the gas from Iran’s South Pars field.
The project set for completion in June 2014 aims at pumping an initial 11 billion cubic metres of Iranian gas per year to Pakistan. Pakistan and Iran have stepped up efforts to materialise the project without further delay after pressure from the United States that it might impose gas sanctions on the proposed project in future.
By doing away with the US pressure, Islamabad has stepped up its efforts after the Russian company explicitly shown interest to join the IP gas pipeline project.
“Except that Gazprom wants Pakistan to offer the project without inviting bids, there are no serious hurdles to secure the deal,” a senior government official told TheNation. Many believed that Russia was keen to take the project as it the pipeline as a means to divert Iranian gas from competing with Russian exports on the European market. “This project is advantageous to Moscow since its realization would carry Iranian gas toward South Asian markets so that in the near future it would not compete with Russian gas to Europe,” a senior European diplomat quipped requesting anonymity.
He said that Russian gas exports satisfy over one quarter of Europe’s gas needs, but the European Union has sought to lessen its dependence with the construction of the Nabucco pipeline to pump Caspian Sea gas to Europe which would bypass Russia.
“Russian move to join the IP gas pipeline project could deprive the Nabucco project of one possible source for gas supplies,” sources said, adding it serves Russia’s strategic interest.