Russian gas giant - Gazprom is keen to participate in the construction of $7.4 billion Iran-Pakistan-India pipeline that would bring gas from the gigantic South Pars fields in Iran to the two South Asian states.
"We are keen on participating in the Iran-India pipeline project," Russian Minister of Industry and Energy Viktor Borisovich Khristenko said, according to a news report here on Friday.
Khristenko, who arrived to witness along with Indian Petroleum Minister Mani Shankar Aiyar the maiden oil and gas production from Sakhalin-I fields on Saturday, favoured enhancing partnerships in the energy sector.
The Russian energy giant had previously held talks with the authorities in Iran and India to become involved in the consortium which would also include Indian Oil Corp and Gail (India) Ltd to lay over 2,100km long gas pipeline.
Gazprom, along with TotalFinaelf of France and Malaysian Petronas, is the major shareholder of Iranian South Pars field, from where Iran would supply gas to Pakistan and India.
A Gazprom delegation, headed by its Chairman Alexey Miller, is expected to visit Pakistan in early October to begin talks with the senior Pakistani officials for leading a consortium for the construction of the pipeline, the report added.
Both India and Pakistan are currently in the process of appointing legal, financial and technical consultants to finalise the project structure. Gazprom, however, had not submitted the Expression of Interest (EoI) for selection as technical consultant by Indian gas utility GAIL earlier this month.
Earlier this week, GAIL (India) had said that five global consultants attended the meeting called for the appointment of technical consultant to carry out pre-feasibility study for the pipeline project.
The pre-feasibility study is scheduled to be completed by mid December.