The Ministry of Petroleum and Natural Resources has asked the state owned gas utilities, Sui Southern Gas Company and Sui Northern Gas Pipelines Limited to conduct a survey for laying Iran and Pakistan gas pipeline on the Pakistani side through their own funds.
Mr Azim Iqbal Siddiqui MD of SSGC said that the minister had asked both utility companies to prepare a survey report for the installation of the pipeline. I am in constant contact with MD SNGPL and through initial study we have observed that we have the capability to perform this task on our own.
Mr Siddiqui said that we have also established that in order to implement the project efficiently 5 kilometers long line would have to be installed per day.
Mr Zuhair Siddiqui spokesperson for SSGC said that the survey study would be initiated in a couple of days. This is a mega project and I cannot define a timeframe at the moment for the completion of the survey.
Pakistan has a gas shortfall of 2.5 billion cubic feet per day. Iranian sources predict that the pipeline will be able to deliver about 740 million cubic feet per day of gas. This would reduce Pakistan’s current gas deficit by 30%.
Dr Asim Hussain the Minister of Petroleum and Natural Resources said that “Work on extending the Iran and Pakistan gas pipeline will begin in the next 6 months and is set to be complete by 2014. It may be mentioned here that some 1,100 kilometers of the 2,700 kilometers pipeline has already been completed on the Iranian side of the border, stretching from the South Paras field to the frontier with Pakistan.
The Iran and Pakistan pipeline was originally conceived as a trilateral design, extending to India dubbed the Peace Pipeline. But India withdrew from negotiations last year in the wake of US opposition to the plans.
The Iranian oil and gas sector has long been the target of international sanctions that seek to stifle its development of nuclear technology and isolate its economy but the pipeline will not contravene any specific restriction.
India’s reluctance to pay transit fees to Pakistan also led New Delhi to withdraw from negotiations. Iran possesses the world’s second largest known reserves of natural gas. Its fields produce 5.5 trillion cubic feet per year. Supply from the USD 7.4 billion pipeline to Pakistan will be used to help remedy chronic power shortages.
(Sourced from www.thenews.com.pk)
