06 March 2011
Iran has rejected India's preconditions for joining the Iran-Pakistan-India natural gas pipeline indicating that the volume reserved for India could be diverted to the Persian Gulf, Indian Express reported on Saturday.
Oil Minister Masoud Mirkazemi told a government delegation from India that Tehran would not budge on gas pricing formula or its delivery point--two concerns on which New Delhi had sought his "indulgence and magnanimity" to break the impasse.
Reports suggest that an Indian delegation may have gone begging to the Iranian petroleum minister for his ''indulgence and magnanimity'' in a bid to break the impasse. With the counter Iranian proposals the Indian delegation may have been shown the door so to speak.
"The pricing of gas follows a fundamental formula and the price at which Iran buys gas from Turkmenistan and also sells to Turkey and Pakistan could form the base of pricing," the discussion records quoted Mirkazemi as saying. India's decision to join the pipeline should be based on that special formula, he added.
At the meeting held last December, India said it expects the gas price to be around $4.2 per mBtu. But Iran's revised pricing formula of 2009 pegs it at $8.3 per mBtu each time crude oil touches $60 per barrel.
The IPI gas had originally been priced at $3.2 per mBtu but was revised to $4.93 per mBtu in 2007 with oil at $60 a barrel, with price revision now proposed every three years, instead of the previously agreed seven.
New Delhi wants to pay for the gas only when it is delivered at the Pakistan-India border so that Tehran is roped in to ensure its safe passage through Pakistan. But Tehran wants to hand it over at Iran-Pakistan border under a trilateral pact whereby it would get paid.
Expressing Iran's unwilling to accept India's riders, the minister emphasized that the gas was much in demand.
"India should expedite its decisions so that Iran could decide on such (surplus) allocation," he said, adding "Iran had no problem even if India decided that it is not participating in the IPI pipeline as Iran had huge demands, especially from the Persian Gulf."
Iran has rejected India's preconditions for joining the Iran-Pakistan-India natural gas pipeline indicating that the volume reserved for India could be diverted to the Persian Gulf, Indian Express reported on Saturday.
Oil Minister Masoud Mirkazemi told a government delegation from India that Tehran would not budge on gas pricing formula or its delivery point--two concerns on which New Delhi had sought his "indulgence and magnanimity" to break the impasse.
Reports suggest that an Indian delegation may have gone begging to the Iranian petroleum minister for his ''indulgence and magnanimity'' in a bid to break the impasse. With the counter Iranian proposals the Indian delegation may have been shown the door so to speak.
"The pricing of gas follows a fundamental formula and the price at which Iran buys gas from Turkmenistan and also sells to Turkey and Pakistan could form the base of pricing," the discussion records quoted Mirkazemi as saying. India's decision to join the pipeline should be based on that special formula, he added.
At the meeting held last December, India said it expects the gas price to be around $4.2 per mBtu. But Iran's revised pricing formula of 2009 pegs it at $8.3 per mBtu each time crude oil touches $60 per barrel.
The IPI gas had originally been priced at $3.2 per mBtu but was revised to $4.93 per mBtu in 2007 with oil at $60 a barrel, with price revision now proposed every three years, instead of the previously agreed seven.
New Delhi wants to pay for the gas only when it is delivered at the Pakistan-India border so that Tehran is roped in to ensure its safe passage through Pakistan. But Tehran wants to hand it over at Iran-Pakistan border under a trilateral pact whereby it would get paid.
Expressing Iran's unwilling to accept India's riders, the minister emphasized that the gas was much in demand.
"India should expedite its decisions so that Iran could decide on such (surplus) allocation," he said, adding "Iran had no problem even if India decided that it is not participating in the IPI pipeline as Iran had huge demands, especially from the Persian Gulf."
© Iran Daily 2011
