Pak keen on oil, gas cooperation with India
Tuesday, 13 January 2004, 20:30 IST
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NEW DELHI: The India-Pakistan detente is impelling Pakistan to seek hydrocarbon cooperation with India, including a long pending gas pipeline project from Iran and import of diesel, a top Pakistani official said here Tuesday. "We would like to hear from our Indian friends what they would like to offer us and where we could have cooperation for mutual benefit. We would then like to focus on those areas like the gas pipeline proposal, which is a win-win situation for everybody - all the three parties," said M. Abdullah Yusuf, secretary of Pakistan's ministry of petroleum and natural resources. "I think commercially there is no doubt about it. It is only for political reasons that India was not supporting it. Pakistan has always stood behind it (the proposal), but our Indian friends have had some security concerns. "We hope to be able to address those. The project will finally become a peace pipeline for the region that should bode well for the future," Yusuf told IANS on the sidelines of the fifth Indian Oil and Gas Conference here. He is accompanied by G.A. Sabri, director general petroleum concessions in the ministry. Though Iran and India are studying the three options of land, shallow and deepwater routes, the Pakistan official said, "our own information is that the land route is the most economical. If that is so, one should try to pursue that." In addition to the pipeline project, the Pakistan official said his country would welcome participation by India in the exploration efforts. Like India, Pakistan is import-dependent for its hydrocarbon requirement. It, too, is scouting overseas for oil equity to ensure supplies while stepping up exploration efforts in the country. "Now that the (peace) process has been initiated, we are going to have more interaction as opposed to before when we were not having a dialogue. This should open up the opportunity for discussing the hydrocarbon relationship," said Yusuf. The official disclosed that during discussions with his Indian counterpart B.K. Chaturvedi, the latter had suggested that Pakistan could source its requirement of diesel from India through a pipeline. "The petroleum secretary has suggested that Pakistan could source its current import requirement of 4.5 million tonnes of diesel from India through the product pipeline at Amritsar," the official disclosed. Though the proposal is still to be studied, Yusuf said the Amritsar pipeline could be linked to either Lahore or any other location for the delivery of diesel. Pakistan currently has a petroleum product pipeline near Lahore. "We would have to take up the matter with our government before we can finalise this proposal," said Yusuf, who would speaking on India's changing energy profile at the conference. During his stay in the country, the official would also be meeting Petroleum Minister Ram Naik to discuss cooperation in the hydrocarbon sector.
Source: IANS
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