Jun 23 2008
India-Iran gas pipeline deal to be signed soon: Deora!
In the major breakthrough the Iran-India Gas Pipeline project will take off in a few weeks. The decision is taken during the emergency meeting in Jeddah late on Sunday night which came in the backdrop of the UPA government coming under attack from the Left for allegedly “dragging its feet” on the pipeline.
Petroleum Minister Murli Deora after the meeting with his Iranian counterpart Gholam Hosein Nozari for talks on the $7.5 billion Iran-Pakistan-India (IPI) pipeline project said there were “some minor problems” which have been sorted out.
However Deora said that there were also some issues with Pakistan that has been taken care of.
Deora said, “The Pakistan oil minister has changed and so we have to deal with the new minister who is going to deal with it. Very soon we should be able to sign the agreement with Iran and Pakistan.”
Petroleum Minister Murli Deora said India has managed to resolve most differences with Iran and that there is no pressure from the US not to go ahead. He met with the Iranian minister on the sidelines of the Jeddah oil summit. It was an unscheduled meeting but one that has clearly yielded positive results.
The Left which criticized the government for going slow on the deal has said it’s a positive step but they won’t be taking the heat off the government just yet, that’s because the Left is still strongly against the nuclear deal and according to the CPI’s D Raja, the two deals aren’t linked.
However all oil producing countries are not keen on increasing oil production. There has been no major outcome in terms of cooling of oil prices while Saudi Arabia has said it will further increase oil production. Iran is sticking to its stand that there’s no shortage of supplies.
