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Pakistan, Iran back study of planned gas pipeline to India

Pakistan and Iran on Friday agreed to a pre-feasibility study for a $4 billion overland pipeline that will carry gas from Iran to India.

Australian resources giant BHP would conduct the study for the proposed 2,500 km pipeline, Iranian Oil Minister Bijan Namdar Zanganeh told reporters after two days of talks with Pakistani counterpart Usman Aminuddin in Islamabad.

Energy-starved India and Tehran are discussing building the pipeline, but India is worried about security if it passes through Pakistan, its long-time rival.

The alternative sea route would be more expensive but Zanganeh said a feasibility study for an offshore pipeline bypassing Pakistan was also under way.

"We hope before the end of 2002 Iran, India and Pakistan can decide about the final alternative," Zanganeh said.

Aminuddin backed the overland route.

"Politically, we have fully supported the request from the Islamic Republic of Iran and we would have no objection if this pipeline passes through our territory...into India," he said.

Ties between Pakistan and India have long been strained over the disputed region of Kashmir. Tension has risen after India accused Pakistan-based Kashmiri militants of a suicide raid on its Parliament in December, an attack that triggered a massive military build-up along the nuclear rivals' border.

Pakistan is also working on several other regional gas pipeline projects to meet its spiralling energy needs.

Pakistani President Pervez Musharraf and Afghanistan's interim leader Hamid Karzai on February 8 agreed to revive a plan for a trans-Afghan gas pipeline from the Central Asian state of Turkmenistan to Pakistan.

A consortium led by US oil firm Unocal had originally aimed to build a $1.9 billion, 1,400 km pipeline to run from gas-rich Turkmenistan via northern Afghanistan.

But in August 1998 Unocal halted development of the project consequent to US forces firing missiles at guerrilla camps in Afghanistan after bomb attacks on two US embassies in Africa.

Under the plan, a 740 km stretch of the pipeline would run across northern Afghanistan.

Pakistan is also in talks with Qatar to resurrect a dormant $5 billion gas project to supply 1.6 billion cubic feet a day (cu ft/d) of Qatari gas to Pakistan by pipeline.

Aminuddin told journalists in Doha earlier this month that the project would be implemented by the private sector and a consortium would be formed to fund it.

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