Official: India keen to join IP gas pipeline

Iranian Oil Ministry Spokesman Alireza Nikzad Rahbar said that New Delhi has shown interest in extension of Iran-Pakistan (IP) gas pipeline to India."Since India has been motivated by Pakistan's seriousness in construction of the (Iran-Pakistan) peace pipeline, New Delhi is negotiating to join the project," Nikzad Rahbar said on Friday.The Iranian official noted that "there has been considerable progress in the IP gas pipeline, with Iranian contractors starting work on the Pakistani section of the pipeline, after finishing nearly 900 kilometers of the pipeline on Iran's soil".Last month, India's Petroleum and Natural Gas Minister M. Veerappa Moily emphasized that his country will not halt imports of Iranian crude oil, rejecting recent Western news reports to the contrary.While noting that unilateral anti-Iran sanctions by the US and the European Union have caused some difficulties for India in terms of insuring Iranian oil shipments, Moily told reporters in New Delhi that his country intends to establish a special fund for insuring oil imports originating from the Islamic RepublicIndia, the world's fourth-largest petroleum consumer, is Iran's second largest oil customer after China and purchases around $12bln worth of Iranian crude every year, about 12 percent of its consumption.Last month, Iran and Pakistan officially inaugurated the construction phase of a gas pipeline project which is due to take Iran's rich gas reserves to the energy-hungry South Asian nation.The project kicked off in a ceremony attended by Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad and his Pakistani counterpart Asif Ali Zardari at the two countries' shared border region in Iran's Southeastern city of Chabahar.The 2700-kilometer long pipeline was to supply gas for Pakistan and India which are suffering a lack of energy sources, but India has evaded talks. In 2011, Iran and Pakistan declared they would finalize the agreement bilaterally if India continued to be absent in the meeting.According to the project proposal, the pipeline will begin from Iran's Assalouyeh Energy Zone in the south and stretch over 1,100 km through Iran. In Pakistan, it will pass through Baluchistan and Sindh but officials now say the route may be changed if China agrees to the project.