India to soon discuss Iran pipeline with Pakistan

India today said it will meet Pakistan "soon" to resolve issues such as transit fee that have stalled a trilateral agreement on the proposed multi-billion dollar gas pipeline originating from Iran.

However, the country did not give a time frame for such talks. India has since August not attended any talks on the pipeline over what it called "unresolved bilateral issues" with Pakistan.

"A meeting between India and Pakistan on the Iran-Pakistan-India pipeline project is being proposed soon," Minister of State for Petroleum and Natural Gas Dinsha Patel said in a written reply to a question in Rajya Sabha here.

New Delhi first excused itself for a bilateral meeting with Pakistan and then boycotted the September trilateral meeting in Tehran, saying it first wanted to resolve the issue of transit fee payable to Islamabad for wheeling the gas through that country.

Iran and Pakistan have since held four meetings and are close to signing a bilateral pipeline deal, possibly next month.

"Such multilateral projects involve protracted discussions, as all the aspects have to be carefully examined and deliberated upon to the satisfaction of the participating countries to protect each country's interests as also to avoid any future problems in the successful operation of the project," Patel said but did not give any deadline for talks.

Iran's new Oil Minister Gholamhossein Nozari had last week said in Riyadh that the Islamic nation welcomed India's participation in the project but set no deadline for New Delhi joining the project.

"Various important issues are under discussion among the participating countries," Patel said. "As such, the project can be finalised only after satisfactory resolution of the issues under discussion." New Delhi and Islamabad have reached broad understanding on the transportation tariff payable to Pakistan for wheeling the gas through the pipeline passing in that country.

But the two nations have not yet agreed on payment of a separate transit fee to Pakistan for allowing passage of the fuel. Iran, Pakistan and India are to separately build pipeline segments falling under their territories.

The pipeline would transport 90 million standard cubic meters per day (mmscmd) of gas, out of which 30 mmscmd would be for internal consumption in Iran. The remaining is to be split equally between India and Pakistan. Islamabad is seeking $0.493 per million British thermal unit (mBtu) as transit fee, while New Delhi has offered $0.15 per mBtu ($60 million a year) for providing security and right of way to the pipeline.