Tehran confirms India still part of Iran-Pak gas pipeline project

Indian consumer happy to pay $14 per mbtu of LNG, says Iranian petroleum ministry

India is still part of the Iran-Pakistan gas pipeline officially as the modalities between Iran and India for the supply of gas, including gas price, were still under discussion, according to a report compiled by the petroleum ministry.

 

The report was compiled by the petroleum ministry in response to a report prepared by the Sustainable Development Policy Institute (SDPI).

 

The petroleum ministry said the SDPI report was based on false assumption and misleading.

 

The ministry said they officially did not know whether India has any objection to the gas price being negotiated between India and Iran, but the Indian consumer is happy to pay  $14 per million British thermal units (mmbtu) of LNG, excluding re-gasification, transportation and margins (based on prices) for the month of October 2013, the Express Tribune reports.

 

The petroleum ministry added this price is about 81 % of the oil parity in energy content basis, at an oil price of $100 per barrel.

 

According to the report, the ministry said that the contract price of crude oil imported by India was in US dollars.

 

It said that due to the hassles in payment transmission due to Iran's geopolitical situation, India and Iran agreed to convert the US dollar value of payments to the equivalent in Indian rupee.

 

The petroleum ministry said that though price discussion between India and Iran is confidential, based on the updated market information the price at which Turkmenistan was selling gas to Iran at the border was conservatively about $11 per mmbtu, the report added.