Officials from Iran, India and Pakistan have agreed on the pricing formula for export of gas from Iranian to meet India's burgeoning energy demands, an Iranian oil official said on Friday.
"After years of efforts, we could reach an understanding in terms of a pricing formula," Hojatollah Ghanimi-fard, director of international affairs at the National Iranian Oil Company told the state radio.
"The three sides will take this proposal, this agreement, to their (governments) and we hope to take the next steps after they give their opinions," Ghanimi-fard said after three days of negotiations with Indian and Pakistani officials here.
"The three sides have one month to respond," he added, without elaborating on the terms of the accord. He hoped that the three countries can "take all other measures" by the end of June in the next round of discussions.
Talks on the proposed multi-billion dollars pipeline --to supply Iranian gas to India through a 2,600-kilometre (1,600 miles) pipeline via Pakistan --began in 1994.
Indian oil ministry sources said the price quoted by Tehran was about seven dollars per million British thermal unit of gas which includes the cost of transportation. New Delhi, which is anxious to exploit new sources of energy to fuel its booming economy, deemed this too steep, and was unwilling to pay more than 4.25 dollars per unit.