Indian Prime Minister Manmohan Singh and visiting Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad will attempt to hammer out an agreement today on a delayed gas pipeline through Pakistan, dismissing U.S. fears the project may finance the Middle Eastern nation's nuclear program.
"There will be a proposed review that will be taking place which will discuss the price, review the price, certification and project structure,'' Manu Srivastava, director at the Ministry of Petroleum, said in a telephone interview from New Delhi yesterday. "There are a lot of issues to be resolved.''
India and Pakistan need natural gas from Iran, with the world's second-largest reserves of the fuel, because a shortage of energy will curb economic growth. India last week rebuffed U.S. calls to push Ahmadinejad to end Iran's nuclear program.
``The success of the pipeline will depend on what cost the gas is made available at to the customers,'' said R. Venkatesan, head of the industry division at the New Delhi-based National Council for Applied Economic Research. ``If you take political considerations it is not worth it.''
India and Pakistan are resisting U.S. pressure to end talks on the pipeline, which they want to complete by December 2012 after a decade of delays. The Bush administration says Iran's nuclear program may be a cover for building weapons, a charge which the Islamic republic denies.
Source: Bloomberg
