IranPakistanIndia gas pipeline

IranPakistanIndia gas pipeline

Location of IranPakistanIndia gas pipeline Location Country From Passes through To Type Partners Expected Length Maximum discharge Diameter Iran, Pakistan, India Asalouyeh Bandar-Abbas, Iranshahr, Khuzdar, Sui, Multan Delhi General information natural gas National Iranian Oil Company, Sui Northern Gas Pipeline Limited, Sui Southern Gas Company Limited 2013 Technical information 2,775 km (1,724 mi) 40 billion cubic metres (1.41012 cu ft) 56 in (1,422 mm)

The IranPakistanIndia gas pipeline, also known as the IPI pipeline or the Peace pipeline, is a proposed pipeline to deliver natural gas from Iran to Pakistan and India. The idea was conceived by a young Pakistani civil engineer Malik Aftab Ahmed Khan in mid 1950s, when an article of his was published by the Military College of Engineering, Risalpur. The article "Persian Pipeline" also mentioned the method for its protection along the hostile

territory by establishing mini battalion-size cantonments along its proposed route through Baluchistan/Sind. The project was conceptualized in 1989 by Rajendra K. Pachauri in partnership with Ali Shams Ardekani, former Deputy Foreign Minister of Iran. Dr Pachauri proposed the plan to both Iranian and Indian governments in 1990. The government of Iran responded positively to the proposal. However, Dr Ahmed now as Senior Consultant on energy to UNDP (Pakistan), advanced the concept further in the UNDP Report authored by him and published in December 2003 titled "Peace and Prosperity Gas Pipelines". The Report highlighted the special benefits of a shared gas pipeline to Pakistan, India and Iran. This resuscitated the project and thereafter the shared pipeline concept was pursued through a trilateral approach till 2009, when USA compensated India with access to civil nuclear power technology for their opting out of the pipeline project. Since then India has taken a back seat and the project is being pursued bilaterally between Pakistan and Iran and as of March 2012 it has made important headway and the pipeline to Pakistan is now scheduled to be completed by December 2014.

Timeline
Gas demand in Pakistan has meanwhile increased to a level that even full capacity of the pipeline would barely meet it in 2015. In February 2007, India and Pakistan agreed to pay Iran US$4.93 per million British thermal units (US$4.67/GJ) but some details relating to price adjustment remained open to further negotiation. In April 2008, Iran expressed interest in the People's Republic of China's participation in the project. In August 2010, Iran invited Bangladesh to join the project.[In 2009, India withdrew from the project over pricing and security issues, and after signing a civilian nuclear deal with the United States in 2008. However, in March 2010 India called on Pakistan and Iran for trilateral talks to be held in May 2010 in Tehran. In January 2010, the United States asked Pakistan to abandon the pipeline project. If canceling the project, Pakistan would receive assistance from the United States for construction of a liquefied natural gas terminal and importing electricity from Tajikistan through Afghanistan's Wakhan Corridor. However, on 16 March 2010 in Ankara, Iran and Pakistan signed an agreement on the pipeline. In July 2011, Iran announced that it has completed construction of its section.

Route
The 2,775-kilometre (1,724 mi) pipeline will be supplied from the South Pars field. It starts from Asalouyeh and stretches 1,172 kilometres (728 mi) through Iran. The Iran's section is known as Iran's 7th cross-country gas pipeline. First 902-kilometre (560 mi) part of this section runs from Asalouyeh to Iranshahr. The second 270-kilometre (170 mi) part runs from Iranshahr to Iran Pakistan border In Pakistan, the pipeline will pass through Baluchistan and Sindh. In Khuzdar, a branch would spur-off to Karachi, while the main pipeline will continue towards Multan. From Multan, the

pipeline may be expanded to Delhi. The route in Pakistan may be changed if China will participate in the project. As there are concerns over the pipeline being attacked by Baluchi insurgents, an alternative offshore route from Iran to the maritime boundary between India and Pakistan off Kutch was proposed. According to this proposal, from there one branch to run to Pakistan while other branch to run to Kutch.

Technical description
The initial capacity of the pipeline was to be 22 billion cubic metres (780 billion cubic feet) of natural gas per year, which was expected to be raised later to 55 billion cubic metres (1.9 trillion cubic feet). However, as a bilateral project between Iran and Pakistan, the pipeline will carry only 8.7 billion cubic metres (310 billion cubic feet) of gas per year as contracted and 40 billion cubic metres (1.4 trillion cubic feet) as a maximum capacity. The pipeline has diameter of 56 inches (1,400 mm). It is expected to cost US$7.5 billion and to be commissioned by 2013.

Companies
In different times several companies have been interested to build the pipeline. Companies included Gazprom, BHP Billiton, National Iranian Gas Company, Petronas, and Total S.A.. A consortium consisting of Royal Dutch Shell, BG Group, Petronas and an Iranian business group had negotiated on exporting of gas from South Pars to Pakistan. From India, GAIL had been involved.[15] However, according to latest news, the pipeline's section in Iran was built by the National Iranian Gas Company and the section in Pakistan by a consortium of Sui Northern Gas Pipeline Limited, Sui Southern Gas Company Limited and Italian company Eni. The National Iranian Gas Company has subcontracted part of the construction project to Khatam al-Anbia for US$200-250 million. The Foreign Minister of the country, Hina Rabbani Khar, has recently given a statement on March 1, 2012 in which she has clearly said that Pakistan will not be backing off from the project of the gas pipe line between Iran and Pakistan. The Foreign Minister of the country also added that in the matters of sovereignty of the country, there will be no compromise made and that the sovereignty of Pakistan should be respected by other countries as well. The United States of America has not been in favor of Pakistan working on the development of a gas pipeline with Iran and made it clear to the Pakistani administration ruled by the Pakistan Peoples Party. However, the American stance on the Pak-Iran gas pipeline was ignored by the Foreign Minister of Pakistan. As a consequence, the United States Secretary of State Hillary Clinton promptly issued a statement that Pakistan should refrain from going on with this deal this can have a disastrous effect on the economy of Pakistan. She indirectly mentioned that Pakistan may also face sanctions and cut off of all kind of aids from USA

After the uncompromising stance that Pakistan has taken with the US on the matter of the gas pipeline between itself and Iran, it has been widely said that the super power and Pakistan may be heading towards confrontation with each other on the subject.