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New Delhi: The government is pursuing the import of natural gas from Iran under the Iran-Pakistan-India project in national interest; the Rajya Sabha was informed on Aug 17.
"This is in order to enhance the energy security of the country. India has proposed holding meetings of Indo-Iran Joint Working Group on oil and gas and Indo-Iran special joint working group on the project," Minister of State for Petroleum and Natural Gas Jitin Prasada said.
He said during Question Hour that US officials have from time to time drawn the attention of the government to implications of sanctions by UN Security Council and also US domestic laws on projects like the IPI gas pipeline project. To a supplementary, Prasada said the IPI project is not on the backburner.
"We are making all efforts. The project is not sidelined. Three nations are involved and many technical aspects are being discussed. Till we are not assured about issues like pricing of gas, delivery point of gas, project structure, payment of transportation tariff and transit fees for passage of natural gas through Pakistan, talks will continue," he said.
He said efforts are on to get this pipeline to India. At the same time, Prasada said, the government is speaking to other nations also as demand for gas has gone up. "We are not relying on Iran alone and are talking to other nations also. We have an agreement for 25 years with Qatar," the minister added.
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