- MUMBAI -- India, Pakistan and Iran are expected to close the $7-bn
gas pipeline deal in June, possibly overriding US' pressure for a rethink.
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- Deputy oil minister of Iran Mohammad-Hadi
Nejad Hosseinian will arrive in Delhi with his eight-member delegation,
following up a visit to Pakistan.
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- "A trilateral meeting of secretaries
will be held in Islamabad from May 22-24 to take the issue further,"
petroleum secretary M Srinivasan said on the sidelines of the inauguration
of a drilling ship, Joides Resolution.
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- The Pakistan talks will be followed by
ministerial talks in Iran in June, when a final draft will be prepared,
he said. Asked about pressure from the US to reconsider the proposal, Mr
Srinivasan said: "Our considerations remain the same, despite the
concerns." The petroleum secretary was in Tehran recently for talks
on the pipeline. Before that, the oil minister of Pakistan had made a trip
to Delhi to see how the project could be carried forward.
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- The Iranian delegation is visiting Pakistan
and India to speed up the project and work on the fine-print of the deal.
All sides are keen to conclude the deal, initiated more than a decade ago.
Political uncertainty between India and Pakistan, as well as an Iranian
nuclear policy that has raised US hackles, have kept the plan on the backburner.
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- The pipeline through Pakistan would link
Iran, which has the world's second-largest gas reserves, and is expected
to take care of India's energy needs for at least 25 years. The 2,670-km
pipeline will run 1,115 km in Iran, 705 km in Pakistan and 850 km in India.
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- http://economictimes.indiatimes.com/articleshow/1511023.cms
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