Three-nation pipeline meeting to be held in May

India, Pakistan and Iran for the first time will hold a tri-partite meeting on the over $7-billion Iran-Pakistan-India pipeline in Tehran in May.

"The issues of gas pricing and project structure need to be resolved consensually as quickly as possible so that the tripartite agreement can be finalised," Petroleum and Natural Gas Minister Murli Deora said today.

Deora said Prime Minister Manmohan Singh was also confident that a pipeline to carry Iranian gas to India across Pakistan would be built.

"India and Pakistan will go as per the international best practices on gas pricing," Amanullah Khan Jadoon, Pakistan oil minister told reporters after meeting with Deora.

Jadoon also allayed any security concerns, saying that Pakistan had a 10,000-km gas pipeline system, which was being managed smoothly. "The main system has never been disrupted," he said.

He added that a number of global companies, including those from China, Russia and Argentina, had already evinced interest in building the pipeline.

Gas from the proposed pipeline is expected to flow by 2011-12. Of the 140 million standard cubic meters of gas per day that the pipeline is likely to carry, India will receive around 90 mscmpd.