ISLAMABAD: In order to minimise the energy deficit of the country, the coalition government is seriously considering restarting work on Iran-Pakistan (IP) Gas Pipeline Project while following the international laws, it was learnt on Tuesday.
According to sources, the government is reviewing the whole process for resumption of work on IP Gas Pipeline Project as Liquefied Natural Gas (LNG) has become not a reliable source for the energy security of the country. They said that the government is sincerely mulling to find a solution to resume work on the IP Gas Pipeline Project in order to meet the country’s energy requirement on a sustainable basis while following the internal laws.
They said the incumbent government believes that in the present circumstance IP Gas Pipeline Project has become a suitable option instead of relying on expansive LNG to meet the burgeoning energy needs of the country. After a long time, an important meeting has been called by the new Secretary Petroleum Capt (Retd.) Muhammad Mahmood to discuss and review in detail for finding the possible/suitable options to restart the IP Gas Pipeline Project, said sources.
Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif attended the 22nd annual meeting of the Council of Heads of State (CHS) of the SCO in September 2022 and held meeting with Iranian President Ebrahim Raisi in Samarkand on 15th September 202 on the sidelines of the Shanghai Cooperation Organization (SCO) meeting where both the countries agreed to further promote bilateral relations in diverse fields. During the meeting, the two sides affirmed the desire to strengthen cooperation in economic, trade, connectivity, energy, culture and people-to-people links.
The work on IP gas pipeline was stalled due to US sanctions on Iran as no Pakistani bank was ready to take the risk of financing the project. The project has always been part of discussions at the high-level interactions between both the countries but no progress has been witnessed since years.
As per the IP-GSPA (Gas Sales, Purchase Agreement), the first gas flow was to start from January 1, 2015. However, the project (IP) could not be implemented due to international sanctions on Iran.
It is pertinent to mention here that the gas would be supplied from Iran’s south Pars gas field and delivered at Pak-Iran border near Gwadar. The project was to be implemented on a segmented approach whereby each country was responsible for construction of pipeline in their respective territory.
The distance up to the Iran-Pakistan border is 1,150 kilometer, while Pakistan’s segment distance is 781km. The Iranian side has already completed construction of over 900km within Iran. The gas volume to be transported to Pakistan is 750 MMCFD and the supply contract is for 25 years.
