Iran is confident on deals to sell liquefied natural gas to India and build a pipeline linking Iranian gas fields with energy-hungry South Asia will both be agreed by the year's end, its foreign minister said on Friday.
Manouchehr Mottaki and Indian Oil Minister Murli Deora said after talks in New Delhi that the two countries were negotiating the price of LNG to be supplied by Tehran.
"I am hopeful and somewhat confident that before the current year is over we will be able to finalise these two important projects," Mottaki told a news conference. Deora said he too hoped the process would soon bear fruit.
Last year the National Iranian Gas Export Company said it would export liquefied natural gas to India for 25 years from the end of 2009, but the deal was subject to ratification by the Iranian government.
The two countries have since been in dispute over the price India will pay for up to five million tonnes of LNG a year, and the haggling had become a stumbling block in attempts to build a pipeline to bring Iranian gas to Pakistan and India. Mottaki said after the meeting Iran was keen to press ahead with both the LNG deal and the gas pipeline.
"I am sure with further negotiations with a specific formula we will finalise the LNG imports from Iran to India," he said. "Based on political will, India will receive gas very soon." New Delhi accuses Tehran of seeking to increase the price tag, while Iran says the Indian offer is too low.
Iran has the second-largest natural gas reserves in the world behind Russia - about 940 trillion cubic feet - while growing Asian economies, including India and Pakistan, are scrambling to find energy sources to feed industrial expansion.
Deora said the Iranians had submitted a proposal on the pricing of gas and India would get back to them. He was hopeful of fixing a price acceptable to both sides. He said new proposals had been added to the contract signed in June 2005 in Tehran, and these were being reviewed.
"I cannot say when we will get LNG, but not very late." Separately, Mottaki and Deora said both sides were awaiting a report on the price to be paid for Iranian gas to be delivered through the proposed $7 billion pipeline.