Iranian Foreign Minister Manouchehr Mottaki has said that over 100 km of the 1,935 km pipeline project has been constructed in Iran. Pakistan has also started construction on the project, added Mr Mottaki.

With an anticipated gas capacity of 26,485 cubic feet per annum, the 42 inch diameter gas pipeline will run from the Assaluyen Gas Field in southern Iran to Pakistan.

Formerly called the Iran – Pakistan – India Pipeline, the project has been under discussion for almost two decades and initially intended to include India. However, when Iran and Pakistan signed a gas sales purchase agreement for the pipeline project in May this year, India refrained from partaking in signing the agreement due to security concerns about the pipeline.

In July 2009, the Iranian Ministry of Petroleum and Natural Resources announced that supply of gas from Iran has been scheduled for October 2013.

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The Pakistani Economic Co-ordination Committee (ECC) approved the $US3.2 billion Iran – Pakistan gas pipeline the following month. A sub-committee of the ECC decided that the route of the pipeline would mainly run through the state of Balochistan, in Pakistan.

Pakistan Federal Minister for Petroleum and Natural Resources told local media that only local companies would be involved in the project.

In September, the Pakistani ambassador to Iran Muhammad Bux Abassi claimed that India had definitely quit the pipeline, however Iranian officials are said to have denied these comments. Officials from Iran and Pakistan said that the option remains open for India to join the project at a later stage, but Iran said that it would not wait indefinitely for India to commit to the project.

Shortly after, the Iranian Ambassador to India Seyed Mehdi Nabizedeh told local news sources that China was interested in the project, but no formal agreements have since been made.

The original Iran – Pakistan – India Pipeline was proposed to be 2,670 km long, running from the Assaluyen gas field in southern Iran to the Gas Authority of India Limited’s Hazira – Vijaipur – Jagdishpur Pipeline in Gujarat.