The Indian view was conveyed to US energy secretary Samuel W Bodman during a meeting with petroleum minister Murli Deora last week.
NEW DELHI: India has conveyed to the US that the Iran-Pakistan-India (IPI) pipeline was still at a nascent stage and that there has been a change in the position of availability of exportable natural gas from Iran.
The Indian view was conveyed to US energy secretary Samuel W Bodman during a meeting with petroleum minister Murli Deora last week.
India said Iran had initially projected a combined gas availability of about 150 million metric standard cubic metre a day (mmscmd) for the Iran-Pakistan-India pipeline and now it has been brought down to 60 mmscmd.
Besides, the project has also been plagued by differences over the price charged by Iran, transportation costs and the transit fee that India may have to pay Pakistan.
Bodman raised the issue by seeking to know Deora’s views on the progress of IPI pipeline.
Interestingly, Bodman also conveyed the concerns of the US upstream companies about the exploration and production (E&P) sector in India.
The companies were of the view that the data available for carrying out E&P work was insufficient. The Indian side, however, countered this. They said the data quality on the Indian oil and gas sector was much higher than in many other countries where the US oil companies have done business.
Deora had recently said the agreement on the Iran pipeline is likely to be finalised by June. A two-day meeting of India-Pakistan joint working group was held last month. This was followed last week by a meeting of the technical sub-group on pipeline hydraulic system design and project cost assumption in New Delhi.
The consultants Gaffney Kline and Associates (GCA) had indicated a price of $5.44/mmbtu for 60 mmscmd pipeline option assuming a monthly average JCC (Japanese Crude Cocktail) price of $68.07 a barrel.
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