Wait for IPI gas deal not endless: Iran

NEW DELHI—Iran has said it could not wait endlessly for India to join Iran-Pakistan-India gas pipeline project, according to media reports here Tuesday quoting Iranian foreign ministry spokesman.
The reports also quoted the Iranian spokesman Mohammad Ali Hosseini as denying existence of any contract for export of liquefied natural gas to India. “It (LNG contract) was not agreed. It was not finalised between the two countries (in June 2005),” the spokesman said, according to the reports.
A consortium of Indian Oil, GAIL and Bharat Petroleum had signed a Gas Sales and Purchase Agreement (GSPA) for import of 5 million tons of LNG for 25 years with National Iranian Gas Export Co (NIGEC) on June 13, 2005. While Tehran has insisted that the contract had to be ratified by the National Iranian Oil Co, the parent firm of NIGEC. The NIOC has refused to ratify the contract unless the gas price is raised. India has been boycotting trilateral talks on IPI project since July 2007, taking the plea that first it wants to resolve transit fee issue with Islamabad. Islamabad had invited Indian Petroleum Minister Murli Deora to visit Islamabad on February 7 and 8 but India declined the request saying that talks will be held after elections in Pakistan.
India is still awaiting Pakistan’s response to its request for official level talks on the $7 billion Iran-Pakistan-India (IPI) gas pipeline, before acceding to any meeting at the ministerial level. This counter-request was made to Pakistan in response to an invitation to Indian Petroleum Minister Murli Deora to visit Islamabad to hammer out the fractious issues over transit fees and transportation tariffs Feb 7.
‘After receiving the letter, we replied that we should first hold official level talks before the ministers meet. We have yet to receive any answer,’ an official in the Ministry of Petroleum and Natural Gas said. He added that India had not suggested any dates to Pakistan, but had left it open-ended. India had also turned down an invitation from Iran on a meeting of the three ministers at Tehran Tuesday and Wednesday - not surprising, as India has been steadfast in its refusal to take part in trilateral meets unless it completes bilateral negotiations with Pakistan. It has in fact kept out of the last three trilateral meetings for the 1,035 km long pipeline on the same argument, which has certainly irked Left allies of the ruling coalition government, who have accused the Congress of succumbing to US pressure.
Indian officials are keen that any further negotiations on the pipeline should be mainly with the next government thrown up by the forthcoming Feb 18 general elections in Pakistan. According to officials, India had asked that transit fee should be pegged at five percent of the price of delivered gas, while Pakistan argues for double that figure. Similarly, the transportation tariff demanded by Pakistan is $1.57 per million British thermal unit of gas supply, while India is looking for a much lower figure of about $0.69 to $0.70.
After India turned down the two ministerial level meets in Islamabad and Tehran this month, there has been rumbling from Tehran and Islamabad that Indian participation was not a fait accompli. Pakistani media reported that China would be interested in stepping into the project, if India did not show more active interest.—Agencies