Iran-Pakistan gas pipeline will touch the border by September 21 next year, Managing Director of National Iranian Gas Company (NIGC) Javad Oji said on Wednesday. Oji said that the 56-inch Iranshahr-Pakistan border Chabahar-Zahedan pipeline would completed 90 percent by March 19. He said that the pipeline would be completely operational by the end of next year.
Islamabad has reiterated its determination to cooperate with Iran in energy sector and pursue Iran-Pakistan (IP) gas pipeline project. Recently, Pakistan's Foreign Ministry spokesperson Moazzam Ahmad Khan said that Pakistan's government was determined to complete the Iran-Pakistan gas pipeline project before 2014 and other energy projects and the US had nothing to do with them.
The spokesperson dismissed reports that the United States planned to invest $280 million in Pakistan's power sector in return for Islamabad's commitment not to pursue the multi-billion-dollar deal with Iran. The Iran-Pakistan gas pipeline, projected to cost $1.2-1.5 billion, is aimed to export a daily amount of 21.5 million cubic meters of Iranian gas to Pakistan.
Maximum daily gas transfer capacity of the 56-inch pipeline - which runs over 900 kilometers from Iran's southern port city of Assalouyeh in Bushehr province to Iranshahr in Sistan-Baluchestan Province - is estimated to hit 110 million cubic meters. Iran has already built more than 900 kilometres of the pipeline on its soil.