By IRNA
Islamabad : Iran, the world’s second largest holder of oil and gas reserves, will sign a final agreement to export gas via pipeline to Pakistan in April, a local private TV channel reported.
Iran has completed half of the pipeline, which will have a capacity to carry 110 million cubic meters of gas a day to Pakistan, Vahid Zeydifard, a senior pipelines expert at National Iranian Gas Company, said.
Iran plans to start exporting gas to Pakistan from 2011, CNBC Pakistan reported.
The US dlrs 7.4 billion project, known as the ‘peace pipeline’, will carry gas from Iran to Pakistan and India to meet the growing energy demand of the two countries.
“Negotiations are at a final stage,” Zeydifard said. “Pakistan needs 50 million cubic meters of gas a day, and we can supply the rest to India if they want it.”
India currently uses about 108 million cubic meters of gas a day.
Iran is unable to commission gas export projects either via pipeline or in liquefied form because US sanctions are preventing international lenders and investors from releasing funds, Zeydifard said.
Pakistan is facing a shortage of gas as domestic fields decline and may have to depend on Iranian fuel to meet demand, which is expanding by five percent a year.
Iran and Pakistan have agreed on the pricing formula for transporting natural gas through the proposed pipeline, the official Islamic Republic News Agency reported on Oct. 23.
National Iranian Oil Co. is developing the Kish field, which will transport gas via a 900-kilometer pipeline from Asalouyeh to Iranshahr once it is completed, said Zeydifard, whose company transports gas in Iran.
Pakistan can start receiving the gas when Iran completes a 400-kilometer section from Iranshahr to the Pakistani border, Zeydifard said.
Iran halted gas exports to Turkey in January to meet soaring domestic demand due to extreme winter weather. “We have started exporting gas to Turkey again,” said Zeydifard.
“We had supply problems because of the cold weather and disruption of gas supplies from Turkmenistan.”
Iran sells gas domestically at 20 cents a million British thermal units. The benchmark gas price at Henry Hub, Louisiana, a gas trading point, is dlrs 10 a million Btu.
Iran may increase exports of gas this year to Turkey by 30 percent to 10 billion cubic meters, Zeydifard said.