Newsnomics AJAY ANGELINA reporter |
In a major development, Pakistan and Iran agreed to revive their stalled cooperation on the Iran-Pakistan (IP) gas pipeline project going to begin in the next two to three weeks.
Pakistan-Iran gas pipeline implementation agreement is the outcome of the recent visit of Pakistan’s Interim Energy Minister Muhammad Ali to Tehran, where he met his Iranian counterpart and other senior officials.
The Iran–Pakistan gas pipeline, also known as the Peace pipeline, or IP Gas is an under-construction 2,775-kilometer (1,724 mi) pipeline to deliver natural gas from Iran to Pakistan is expected to provide 750 million cubic feet of gas per day to Pakistan.
Muhammad Ali, the energy minister said, “Pakistan has renewed its commitment to the project and have convinced the neighboring country to enhance work on TAPI project during constructive talks between the two nations. In response, the Iranian side listened to us carefully and agreed to increase active engagements to enable the IP project” reported by The News.
In addition, Iran offered to export supplementary electricity to Pakistan for Gwadar and Chaman regions that is expected by Pakistan.
Muhammad Ali views that Pakistan needs more electricity from Iran for Gwadar, of course on a better negotiated tariff. Though China is setting up an imported coal-based 300MW power plant at Gwadar yet it may not fulfill the future needs. Once the national grid gets installed at Gwadar, Pakistan can also use more Iranian electricity nationwide, said the energy minister.
The energy minister also clarified that the Inter-State Gas Systems of Pakistan and the National Iranian Gas Company signed a revised agreement in September 2019 for the pipeline. Pakistan could not build the pipe line primarily due to the risk of US sanctions that any project with Iran would invite. However, the Iranian side assured that there would be no US sanctions on Pakistan, as Iran is already selling gas to Azerbaijan and Turkmenistan without any sanctions.
Iran has given Pakistan time until September 2024 to complete the project, otherwise it may move to international arbitration for the breach of contract.
