The IPI Peace Pipeline

The IPI peace pipeline

Conceived in the 1990s, the Iran-Pakistan-India gas pipeline or the IPI peace pipeline has long been a work in progress, however this month seems to have seen the project close to some sort of completion albeit without one of the founding members.

Originally the cross border pipeline deal would have seen Iran supply Pakistan and India with natural gas, but a year ago Iran and Pakistan agreed to pursue the project without India, meaning Pakistan would receive 750 million ft3/d of natural gas from 2014.

It is believed that India had doubts, not only about the price of the gas, but the safety of the pipeline in Pakistani territory and the high transit fee meant that negotiations were in a constant state of delay.

For Iran and Pakistan, there was speculation that New Delhi's decision was being influenced by the US, who were condemning Iran actions, such as pursuing a nuclear weapons program.

The US has also put pressure on Pakistan in the past. In January of this year,
the United States asked Pakistan to abandon the pipeline project in return of US assistance for the construction of an LNG gas terminal and importing electricity from Tajiskistan.

Pakistan however, has sided with Iran and signed an accord in March. Iran formally signed a deal this month saying it would supply the gas accordingly.

The pipeline

The 2,775km pipeline, of which 1,000km has already been constructed in Iran, will start from Asalouyeh (supplied by the South Pars field) and pass into Pakistan through Baluchistan and Sindh.

Due to security concerns, India had proposed some of the pipeline be offshore, however reports seem to indicate that has been disregarded.

Iran is expected to begin construction of the 300 km stretch of the pipeline from Iranshahr to the Pakistani border next week.

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Timon Singh

Timon Singh is a graduate of Liverpool University where he received a degree in Social and Economic History. He has previously worked for BBC Magazines on BBC Who Do You Think You Are? Magazine, the publication for the popular genealogy show.

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