India tells Iran subsea pipeline plan ‘feasible’

Iran says it has moved a step forward in a project to export natural gas to India through a subsea pipeline – what could be the world’s biggest such project if materialized.

Alireza Kameli, the managing director of the National Iranian Gas Export Company (NIGEC), has been quoted by the media as saying that India has informed Iran that the technical studies it has carried out over the project show that it is “feasible”.

Kameli added that India had commissioned several European companies to conduct the studies over the project that had been a subject of discussions between Tehran and New Delhi for years. 

“The required investments for the project and its implementation are to be carried out by an Indian company,” the official has been quoted by IRNA as saying without naming the Indian company.   

The project to export Iran’s gas to India originally envisaged creating a pipeline link that would also involve Pakistan. The three countries had been discussing over the project for over a decade but were unable to arrive at an agreement to get it off the ground. 

Analysts believe that a series of problems plagued what was known as the Iran-Pakistan-India (IPI) Project - or the Peace Pipeline Project – including disputes over pricing as well as concerns over the security of the pipeline specifically a key part of it that passed through Pakistan’s restive regions before reaching India. 

Later, India withdrew from the project and Iran and Pakistan continued their talks to create the link between themselves. Iran has already take the pipeline to its border with Pakistan but talks over extending it into Pakistan are not making progress over a series of technicalities including funding and pricing. 

SS