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MEOG PiPeLines & tRansPoRt MEOG
Iran and Pakistan sign revised gas pipeline deal
iRan
ThE national gas firms of iran and Pakistan this week signed a revised deal for the construction of the proposed iran-Pakistan pipeline (iPP).
Pakistan’s inter State Gas Systems (iSGS) and the National iranian Gas Co. (NiGC) agreed terms for a revised deal for the construction of the gas pipeline between the two countries.
Sources reported this week that the new deal omits a clause allowing iran to fine Pakistan for not sticking to the project deadline, something stipulated by the previous version.
The latest projection for the cost of the pipe- line is around $3.5bn, according to industry sources. however, $2.5bn of this has already been invested in the 900-km stretch on iran’s side that has already been completed. Pakistan’s 780-km stretch has yet to be started.
The original agreement for the iPP, signed between iran and Pakistan in 1995, was pred- icated on the 2,775-km pipeline running from
South Pars into Karachi but the most recent iter- ation of the route involves the gas running from iran’s Asalouyeh and into Pakistan’s port of Gwa- dar and then on to Nawabshah.
The pipeline would carry gas produced from the South Pars field – iran’s portion of the world’s largest gas deposit. Pakistan is looking to com- plete its section of the pipeline by 2024, after which it would buy 750mn cubic feet per day (7.75bn cubic metres per year) of gas from iran.
in February 2014, Pakistan’s then petro- leum minister, Shahid Khaqan Abbasi, told the National Assembly that the project had been made impossible for the time being because of sanctions.
he said: “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.”
Week 37 17•September•2019 w w w . N E W S B A S E . c o m P9
