By IRNA,
Tehran : The managing director of the National Iranian Gas Export Company has said that the oil and energy ministers of Pakistan and India will hold final talks with Iran on the price of the gas supply to the Peace Pipeline.
The trilateral talks on the Peace Pipeline between Iran, India and Pakistan will be held in the near future, Nosratollah Seifi said Monday.
Referring to the agreement signed in the winter of 2006 between the three countries, Seifi said that India which did not attend the Peace Pipeline talks so far, has come back.
He said that gas prices will undergo drastic change in light of the jump in the oil prices, adding that the gap between oil and gas prices has narrowed, citing the current increase in world LNG price.
Changes to the gas price will be determined in the multilateral domestic committee, he added.
The agreement would be inked by the ministers of oil and energy but India has yet to introduce its representative, Seifi pointed out.
Seifi added that Iran has made a gas deal with the Swiss EGL company last month in which the gas price will be in accord with the increasing oil price.
He said that the 25-year contract has three phases — the first, which starts by 2009, the primary amount will be 1.5 billion cubic metres of gas that will rise to 4 billion cubic metres in the second stage and 5.5 billion cubic metres in the third.
To transfer the gas via Turkey, Switzerland has undertaken to pay the expense of transfer and getting export permit, Seifi said.
He said that the gas will be piped to Switzerland’s EGL power plants and Romania’s as well.
Asked why the agreement was inked when the Swiss foreign minister visited Iran, Seifi said that negotiations for the deal had been completed so far between the Iranian Oil Ministry and the Swiss company and the ceremony for signature was held in the presence of the Swiss foreign minister.