BackIndia revives talks on gas pipeline connecting it with Oman and Iran
According to a proposal gas will be transported from Iran to Oman and then onwards to India
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New Delhi: With the multi-billion-dollar gas pipeline linking Iran, Pakistan and India still to see the light of day, India on Friday discussed the possibility of reviving a deep sea pipeline connecting Oman and Iran to energy-deficient India, two people close to the development said.
“The proposal was discussed," during separate talks between Indian foreign minister Salman Khurshid and Yousuf bin Alawi bin Abdullah, the minister responsible for foreign affairs of Oman and Iran’s foreign minister Javad Zarif, one of the people cited above said.
The proposal, first made in the mid-1990s, was revived “because when it was proposed the technology for laying such a pipeline didn’t exist. But now we see that a similar pipeline has been laid in the North Sea which opens possibilities for the use of similar technology elsewhere," said one of the people cited above.
According to the proposal, “gas will be transported from Iran to Oman and then onwards to India. All this will, of course, need careful study. What happened today was an expression of willingness to try and explore the possibility of such a pipeline that was proposed and then given up in the 1990s," said the second person cited above when asked for details like project costs. Energy-starved India imports almost 80% of its requirements.
The Iran-Pakistan-India gas pipeline was first proposed in the early 1990s but is yet to take off with India’s tense relations with Pakistan and international sanctions on Iran being among the reasons that stalled the project. In 2012, India’s cabinet had cleared the $7.6-billion gas pipeline project that originates in Turkmenistan and passes through Afghanistan and Pakistan before terminating in India.
With Oman, talks also touched on “developments in the Gulf, Afghanistan, Syria as well as the Indian Ocean region in general as both Oman and India are members of the Indian Ocean Rim Association," said the first person cited above referring to an 18-member grouping of Indian Ocean littoral states. Syria and Afghanistan were also issues discussed with Iran, the first person added.
India and Shia-majority Iran are both worried about the resurgent hardline Sunni Taliban taking over Afghanistan after the withdrawal of US troops from the country by the end of this year. India and Iran along with Russia were the main backers of the opposition Northern Alliance resisting a complete Taliban takeover of Afghanistan between 1996 and 2001.
On the table for talks with Iran was the development of the strategically located Chabahar port that will give India access to landlocked Afghanistan and the resource and energy-rich Central Asia. India and Iran had agreed to look at developing the port in southeastern Iran in 2003, during a visit to India by then Iranian president Mohammad Khatami, but the venture has not made much progress.
India has committed $100 million to upgrading facilities at the port after spending $100 million on building a 220 km road in western Afghanistan to link up with Chabahar. The port on the Gulf of Oman is 72 km from Pakistan’s deep-water Gwadar port, which China has built as part of a plan to open up an energy and trade corridor from the Gulf, across Pakistan to western China.
“Chabahar and a corridor, both rail and road from Chabahar to Afghanistan and Central Asia, is a project we are working together with India. I hope that in this trip we can take practical steps (to implement the project)," Zarif said on Thursday.
The situation in Syria is another issue where India and Iran seem to be on the same page with both countries against the toppling of the Bashar al-Assad regime with outside help. Another issue on the table for talks with Iran was the question of Indian payments for Iranian oil sourced from the country before stringent sanctions targetting the country’s oil and banking sectors came into force two years ago.
A PTI report said Iran had asked India to repay half of its outstanding debt of nearly $3 billion for oil supplies, now that sanctions have eased thanks to a recent breakthrough in talks between Iran and the international community over its controversial nculear programme. Iran was one of India’s top three sources of oil imports but due to sanctions has dropped below the top 10.
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