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| Tehran not willing to sell gas cheaply to India, Pakistan | | | New Delhi: Iran's Deputy Oil Minister Mohammad Hadi Nejad-Hosseinian said on Thursday that the price being offered by New Delhi and Islamabad for Iranian gas was half of what Tehran was looking out for.
Speaking to reporters here on the sidelines of the third round of talks to iron out a seven-billion-dollar gas pipeline deal with India and Pakistan, Hosseinian said, "The price of the seller is about twice the prices that the buyers are interested,"
On being asked how big the price difference was, Hosseinian refused to divulge the details saying, "It depends how you compare it".
"We think that the price is fair and today we have a report that shows that's the good price for India and Pakistan," he added.
However, New Delhi said the price quoted by Tehran was too high and it should be brought down.
"The gap is fairly wide now that is why another round of discussions has been necessitated. I am sure we'll be able to see eye-to-eye to bring down the gap," said M. S. Srinivasan, Petroleum Secretary.
Endorsing Srinivasan’s view, Mukhtar Ahmed, advisor to Pakistan Prime Minister Shaukat Aziz on energy issues, said affordability was a key aspect for both the buyers.
"We are basically thinking along similar lines, we are thinking rationally. The price that is fixed for this project should make sense for both seller and buyer... affordability is obviously a very important issue because when you buy anything you need to look into affordability aspect, if you don't buy that, you can buy something else that you can substitute," Ahmed said.
The gigantic Iran-Pakistan-India (IPI) gas pipeline project was mooted about a decade ago but progress has been slow because of hostility between Pakistan and India and more recently due to US opposition to Iran because of latter’s nuclear programme.
India, which imports 70 percent of the oil it consumes, is also in process to build gas pipelines from Myanmar, Iran and Turkmenistan to meet the growing energy needs for its expanding economy. |
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