Gas pipeline to Iran is on: Aiyar

Union Petroleum and Natural Gas Minister Mani Shankar Aiyar on Friday refuted a media report that India may opt out of the Iran-Pakistan-India gas pipeline, stressing that New Delhi was "fully committed" to the project.

"It is completely wrong to suggest that neither I nor anyone in authority in India has advocated withdrawing from the Iran-Pakistan-India pipeline," Aiyar said.

"The story to this effect is completely misplaced. I deny this report," Aiyar told PTI in Beijing before returning to India after a three-day official visit to China.

"We stand fully committed to the Iran-Pakistan-India pipeline," he said.

"It will be recalled that on February 9, 2005, the Cabinet had authorised me to embark on bilateral discussions with Iran and Pakistan authorities to purchase at the India border natural gas that would be piped from Iran through Pakistan to the Pak-India border.

"In consequence of that decision, there have been several meetings between me and my counterparts and also a series of meetings of the India-Pakistan Working Group, the India-Iran Working Group and the Iran-Pakistan Working Group," he said.

The stage has now been set for "shifting from the trilateral mode to bilateral mode, which can't be made without cabinet sanction," Aiyar said.

"While advocating a series of other options, my ministry is obliged to recall the already authorised option which is to purchase the gas at the border without being involved in the project itself," Aiyar said.

"But it is obvious, there can be no Iranian gas made available at the Pak-India border unless there is a pipeline project, which would bring gas from Iran to Pakistan and to India," he said.

To this end, the minister pointed out that an Indian delegation is already in Tehran, primarily to discuss the supplementary components of the Iran-India LNG deal and also to discuss on the sideline matters relating to the pipeline.

"It is possible that the Iranian oil minister, who has only recently been confirmed in his post by the Iranian Majlis, will be visiting India later this month," Aiyar said.

He also said that the Pakistan High Commission has confirmed it to him that the Pakistani oil minister will be "paying his return visit to me in February."

"Perhaps by then, we would have a decision on shifting from the trilateral mode to the bilateral mode," he said.