India part of gas pipeline project: Iran

New Delhi: Iran on Tuesday said that India was very much a part of the Iran-Pakistan-India gas pipeline project and that the three countries may decide to build a parallel pipeline.

Iranian Deputy Oil Minister Hadi Nejad Hosseinian, who is in New Delhi to meet Petroleum Minister Murli Deora, said that Tehran has set July as the deadline to sign a deal for the over $7 billion pipeline project, failing which it would pursue bilateral exports to Pakistan.

He said the pipeline would have a capacity of 110 million standard cubic metre per day of which 30-35 mmscmd would be used for meeting the demand in eastern part of Iran.

Pakistan has indicated a requirement of 30-60 mmscmd, while India needs 90 mmscmd from the pipeline.

"The demand will ramp up over five years and initially the capacities can be divided on pro-rata basis," he added.

Earlier, Deora asserted that India was serious about the Iran-Pakistan-India gas pipeline and the US cannot pressurise New Delhi into walking out of the project.

"I don't think US is pressurising us on the issue. I think US cannot pressurise us to walk out of the project," Deora said.

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