"We have not set any deadline (for India to join the IPI pipeline project)," Iranian Oil Minister Gholamhossein Nozari said on Thursday.
India has since September not attended any meeting called to finalise the pipeline project, saying it wanted to resolve the transit fee issue with Pakistan before trilateral talks.
Undeterred by India's boycott, Iran and Pakistan have held a few rounds of discussions and on Saturday finalised the content of a bilateral export gas deal and they now plan to execute the contract within a month.
"What we are told is that they (India) have kept their interest in the project... Both Iran and Pakistan expect and welcome India to join the project... we have not and will not set any deadlines (for India joining the project)," he said.
New Delhi and Islamabad have reached broad understanding on the transportation tariff payable to Pakistan for wheeling the gas through the pipeline passing in that country. But the two nations have not yet agreed on payment of a separate transit fee to Pakistan for allowing passage of the fuel.
"We have been told that there are differences between India and Pakistan over certain issues, one of them being transit fee," Nozari said. "We hope they resolve the differences soon."
The Iranian minister said his country has finalised a deal to export gas from the South Pars gas fields in Persian Gulf to Pakistan, pending Indian participation in the project. "We are anyway implementing our part of the pipeline project."
Iran, Pakistan and India were to separately build pipeline segments falling under their territories. The pipeline would transport 90 million standard cubic meters per day of gas, out of which 30 mmscmd would be for internal consumption in Iran. The remaining was to be split equally between India and Pakistan.
Nozari said he hoped India will not dump the pipeline under US pressure. "We have great respect for Indian culture... its freedom from British occupation... In our opinion, India is big enough not to be pressured by any one. We don't believe it can come under US pressure," he said.
The US is opposed to India and Pakistan doing business with Iran, a nation it accuses of harboring nuclear weapon ambitions. Washington is instead backing a similar line from Turkmenistan, via Afghanistan to meet growing energy needs of India and Pakistan.
A Steering Committee meeting of the Turkmenistan-Afghanistan-Pakistan-India pipeline is scheduled next month for finalising the gas contract.
Meanwhile, Pakistan has also invited India for bilateral talks later this month to resolve the transit fee issue. New Delhi has not yet accepted the invitation.
Earlier, India and Pakistan have narrowed down differences on transportation tariff. Islamabad previously wanted $0.7 per million British thermal unit (mBtu) as wheeling charges but New Delhi was willing to pay no more than $0.55 per mBtu (220 million dollar annually). The two sides have now agreed to base it on actual cost of building and operating the 1,035-km pipeline in Pakistan.
However, differences continue on the transit fee. Islamabad is seeking $0.493 per mBtu, while New Delhi has offered $0.15 per mBtu (60 million dollars a year) for providing security and right of way to the pipeline.
Iran plans to begin export of gas to Pakistan by end of 2013. Most of the 1,035-km section of pipeline in Pakistan was to connect local consumption centres and if India is to join the project, only a small pipeline section would be needed to extend it to India-Pakistan border.
The pipeline from Iran-Pakistan border to Hyderabad (in Pakistan) would be 56-inch in diameter and feed demand in Pakistan. Thereafter, 241-km line to Barmer in Rajasthan will be only 42-inch as this section will carry gas only for India.
Asked about TAPI project rivalling IPI pipeline, Nozari said, "We have to see what is the gas demand of India (and if TAPI alone can meet it)."
