By IRNA,
Islamabad : Pakistan has told the United States that it is committed to signing the Iran-Pakistan-India (IPI) gas pipeline deal with Iran to meet its emerging energy requirements, reports said Thursday.
Minister for Petroleum and Natural Resources Khawaja Asif informed the U.S Ambassador Anne W Patterson in a meeting that Pakistan and Iran are in the final stages of signing the IPI gas pipeline project deal, the report in a major daily said.
When the US ambassador inquired about progress on the project, Asif told her that Pakistan and India would hold talks on the transit issue on April 25.
Indian Petroleum Minister Murli Deora would represent his country at the talks, he told her.
Patterson was also told that the Indian ambassador would meet with the Pakistani petroleum minister on Thursday to discuss developments on the project, the sources added.
TAP project: The US ambassador was also briefed on the current status of the Turkmenistan-Afghanistan-Pakistan (TAP) gas pipeline project. Patterson was told that Pakistan was committed to materializing the TAP project, and that the steering committee for this project would meet from April 23-24 to discuss project modalities.
She was told that Turkmenistan would present a certification of gas reserves at the meeting, so that the deal could proceed.
Asif also told the ambassador that the new government would take steps to mine Thar coal deposits for power generation, to meet the challenges of soaring international oil prices and to reduce the $12 billion oil import bill.