The Pulse

Pakistan Wants to Accelerate Iran Natural Gas Pipeline

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The Pulse

Pakistan Wants to Accelerate Iran Natural Gas Pipeline

Pakistan’s foreign ministry announced that Pakistan would double-down on the construction of its pipeline with Iran.

Pakistan Wants to Accelerate Iran Natural Gas Pipeline
Credit: Oil Pipeline via Shutterstock

After a disappointing series of conversations with U.S. Secretary of Defense Chuck Hagel, Pakistan announced that it would take steps to bolster its fragile energy security situation by doubling-down on cooperation with Iran over an ongoing gas pipeline project. The pipeline between the two countries will enable the transfer of gas from Iran’s South Pars facilities to Pakistan. Iran has successfully constructed most of the 900 kilometer pipeline up to the Pakistani border. The United States opposes the project.

The pipeline project initially faced a deadline of winter 2014 but due to repeated delays, gas is not expected to flow from Iran to Pakistan until sometime later that year. Reportedly, Pakistan would be contractually obligated to pay Iran US$1 million for every day of delay on the project beyond its agreed-upon deadline. The decision to speed up efforts this time came from a meeting between Pakistani and Iranian officials in Tehran. According to Dawn, “[Pakistan] Federal Minister for Petroleum and Natural Resources Shahid Khaqan Abbasi and Iranian Minister of Petroleum Bijan Namdar Zangeneh held at the Ministry of Petroleum at Tehran on Monday.” The two countries agreed to “formulate a road map” to proceed with the gas pipeline project, focusing on bolstering coordination and cooperation on the development of the pipeline.

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