Iran has inaugurated a 907-kilometre phase of a 2700km long proposed pipeline aimed at pumping Iran’s natural gas from the South Pars gas field into Pakistan within the next five years, the Iran Daily newspaper reported.
This phase of the pipeline linking Assalouyeh in the southern Province of Bushehr to Iranshahr in the southeastern province of Sistan-Baluchestan was constructed at a cost of around US$2.9 billion within five years.
The project was launched last week.
Iran and Pakistan formally completed the signing of a gas contract on June 12, under which Tehran agreed to deliver 21.2 million cubic metres (750 million cubic feet) of natural gas per day to the energy hungry country from 2014.
The 2700-kilometre long pipeline will transfer gas from Iran’s South Pars gas field to Pakistan’s southern Baluchistan and Sindh provinces.
Bangladesh upbeat on pipeline extension
Meanwhile, a top official from Bangladesh said his country is eyeing joining the pipeline project to meet its soaring energy demand in future.
“The government would welcome the Iranian proposal of tagging Bangladesh with the proposed $7.5 billion cross-border gas pipeline to meet its mounting natural gas requirements in industries and power plants,” state-owned Petrobangla chairman Hossain Monsur told the Financial Express on Sunday.
“We would be very happy to be a part of the proposed multi-country gas pipeline,” he noted.
He said it would be very useful for the country if it can bring energy-rich Iran’s gas inside the border.
Joining the proposed Iran-Pakistan-India (IPI) gas pipeline would also help ease energy crisis of this region, said Monsur.
If established, the pipeline would be the first cross-border multi-country gas pipeline involving South Asian countries.
India, Myanmar and Bangladesh earlier agreed in principle to set up a tri-nation gas pipeline to carry Myanmar gas to India across Bangladesh territory.
Several companies around the globe have shown interest to construct the pipeline, including Gazprom, BHP Billiton, National Iranian Gas Company, Petronas, and Total SA.
A consortium consisting of Royal Dutch Shell, BG Group, Petronas and an Iranian business group have negotiated on exporting gas from South Pars to Pakistan. GAIL from India has also been involved, the paper reported.
