Officials from India, Iran and Pakistan will meet in Tehran tomorrow to discuss the price of gas to be supplied through the over 7-billion dollar Iran-Pakistan-India gas pipeline.
"We have to first decide on the price of gas. Other issues like when and how the project will be built and maintained can be negotiated later," a top official was quoted as having said here.
Anil Razdan, Special Secretary in Ministry of Petroleum and Natural Gas, will lead the Indian side at the deliberations to be held on January 24-25. The meeting was earlier scheduled for January 20-21 but was deferred, according to a news report.
Iran also named Hojjatollah Ghanimifard, director of international affairs at National Iranian Oil Company (NIOC) as its chief negotiator for the trilateral working committee on the Iran-Pakistan-India gas pipeline.
"There was a wide gap between the prices Iran, as the seller, and India and Pakistan, as purchasers proposed. The two-day meeting will look at resolving the differences," he said.
Tehran had proposed a price equivalent to 10 percent of the Brent crude oil price, plus a fixed cost of 1.20 dollars per million British thermal unit (mBtu). At 50 dollars per barrel, this translated into a price of 6.20 dollars per mBtu at the Iran-Pakistan border. Transportation costs beyond that point would add to that price.
On the other side, New Delhi does not want to pay more than 4.25 dollars per mBtu for the gas delivered through the 2,100 km line at its border.
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