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| Iran, India to talk boosting oil, gas trade |
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Tehran is willing to re-route the natural gas pipeline from Iran to India provided New Delhi ramps up its crude oil purchases from Iran to pre-sanction levels.
Besides the offshore sub-sea pipeline from the Persian Gulf to India, Iran is also willing to offer discount on crude oil and enter into production sharing contract with India's ONGC Videsh Ltd for Farzad-B gas field, its first such contract.
The goody bag would be outlined during Oil Minister Rostam Ghasemi visit on May 27 to ascertain India's solidarity with Iran through increase in crude oil imports to volumes higher than 2011 levels, said sources.
Under pressure from the United States, India's crude oil imports have sharply dwindled since 2011. From 18.1 million tons in 2011-12, it fell 26.5 percent to 13.3 million in 2012-13 as the United States and European sanctions made it difficult to ship oil from the Persian Gulf nation.
Foreign office officials said they favor shoring up crude from Iran to take advantage of opportunities when the sanctions are lifted. They felt that the relationship should be bolstered because of India's permanent interest in Iran which surpasses the current international imbroglio.
They said a "strategic cooperation" agreement was in the works that emphasizes Iran investing a part of the surplus revenue from the increased crude imports in projects such as a sub-sea pipeline from the Persian Gulf as well as an LNG project near Chahbahar port to feed gas to India.
These projects would circumvent concerns that India has raised over the security of the proposed onland Iran-Pakistan-India gas pipeline. The IPI pipeline, so-called the peace pipeline, has been in talks for almost a decade with New Delhi refraining from making a commitment.
The National Iranian Oil Company has been authorized to negotiate on gas supplies through a proposed offshore pipeline or as LNG.
(Source: Indianexpress)
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