Pak in talks with India over gas supply

India is willing to export 400 million cubic feet of gas per day to Pakistan but the matter hinges on finalising a tariff that is on the lower side, Petroleum and Natural Resources Minister Shahid Khaqan Abbasi has said.
Abbasi said a delegation from state-run GAIL, India's largest gas transmission and marketing company, had met him to assess Pakistan's willingness to import gas from India.
Gas would be imported from India only if the tariff is finalised on "the lower side", he said.
"Since the country is energy deficient, we showed our willingness and our experts would soon visit India to sort out the technical issues involved in it. After the report of the technical team, both the countries will initiate talks on the gas tariff issue," he was quoted as saying by The News daily.

India would lay a pipeline from Jalandhar to Attari and then to Wagah. Once an agreement is finalised, the project will take at least one-and-half years to complete.
LNG would be gasified by the Indian side and pumped into the pipeline for Pakistan, he said.

Pakistan's demand for gas stands at 8 billion cubic feet while the current production is 4 billion cubic feet.
Pakistan needs gas from all possible sources as it has no huge gas reserves, he said.
"So we need to exploit all indigenous and external potential to tap gas to cater to the country's needs," said Abbasi, a senior leader of the PML-N.

The minister further said that the new government will honour the agreement signed by the previous Pakistan People's Party-led government for the multi-billion Iran-Pakistan gas pipeline project as it was a pact signed between two sovereign countries.