The visiting Iranian Deputy Oil Minister Nejad Hosseinian on Thursday said Iran expected crude oil price to touch $70 a barrel by the end of 2005 due to the demand-supply mismatch.
An Iranian delegation is in Delhi for a two-day special joint working group meeting on the Indo-Iran gas pipeline.
Officials said while Iran was keen to enter into a memorandum of understanding with India, the latter wanted the security concerns to be addressed first. Iran wants the project structure to be worked out by the end of this year, and implementation and financing to be finalised by April 2006.
On India's security concern, Hosseinian said, "Security has been an issue. We have discussed it before and different groups are working on it."
India, Iran and Pakistan have formed three separate joint working groups between India and Iran, India and Pakistan, and Pakistan and Iran.