IPI gas talks to resume

New Delhi—India plans to resume talks with Pakistan over a pipeline to transport natural gas from Iran after more than a decade of delays, Indian Oil Minister Murli Deora said.
Engineers from India will meet their counterparts in Pakistan this week when the new government takes office in Islamabad, Deora said in an interview at his ministry in New Delhi.
Iran, which has the world’s second-largest oil and natural gas reserves, agreed to sell gas to India in 1995.The $7.4 billion project stalled because India couldn’t agree with Iran on the price for the gas or the fees it will pay Pakistan for transporting the fuel. The 2,100-km pipeline was shelved when the South Asian neighbours came to the brink of war after a terrorist attack on India’s parliament in 2001.

—Agencies