India will push for an accord on a multi-billion dollar pipeline to transport gas from Iran through Pakistan by mid-July, Oil Minister Murli Deora said on Wednesday.
"On June 27, there is a bilateral meeting (between India and Pakistan) and on June 28 and 29, there are trilateral meetings in New Delhi," Deora told reporters, the Press Trust of India (PTI) news agency reported. "We have to strike the deal by mid-July," he said postponing an earlier date he had set for June.
New Delhi and Islamabad will meet to sort out differences on transportation tariff and transit fees first and then follow it up with discussions with Iran, said Deora. Oil ministers of the three countries would then meet in July to ink the framework agreement on the $7.4 billion pipeline, he said.
The 2,600-km-long pipeline from Iran''s giant South Pars gas field will initially carry around 60 million standard cubic metres per day of gas. Talks on the proposal started in 1994, but have been stalled because of technical and commercial issues, apart from objections by the United States, which has locked horns with Tehran over its atomic programme.
India, which currently imports more 70 percent of its energy needs, has been seeking new supplies of oil and gas from abroad besides, ramping up production from domestic sources to fuel its runaway economic growth.
Separately, Deora said New Delhi would sign a deal with Algeria to import 1.25 million tonnes of liquefied natural gas annually. India''s Petronet LNG Ltd would source the gas from Algeria''s national company Sonatrach, oil ministry secretary M.S. Srinivasan said.
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