“We hope that the design of the pipeline will be completed before the current Iranian year ends on 21 March 2011,” said Mr Zadeh.
Noting that only 250 km of the pipeline on the Iranian side remains to be built, he said that Iranian gas will be delivered to Pakistan by March 2014.
Mr Zadeh said that Russian and Chinese firms have shown interest in constructing the Pakistani section of the pipeline and that China and Pakistan will continue to hold talks over the coming months.
The 900 km, 42 inch diameter gas pipeline will run from the Assaluyen gasfield in southern Iran to Pakistan. Requiring a total investment of $US3.2 billion, the IP pipeline will have a capacity of 750 MMcm/a.
Article continues below…The pipeline was initially planned to also run through India; however the Indian Government withdrew from negotiations in 2009 due to concerns about the security of the project.
Iran and Pakistan signed a gas sales purchase agreement for the pipeline project in May last year.
The two countries signed the final agreement for the construction of the IP gas pipeline in March 2010.
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