New Delhi: The deal to build a gas pipeline between India and Iran through Pakistan has run into trouble, Iran's Foreign Minister was quoted as saying on Sunday.
Oil ministers from the three countries are set to meet in Tehran early next month over a pricing dispute and ways to build the 2,775-kilometer (1,735-mile) line across rugged terrain and heavily militarised frontiers.
The pipeline situation is "a little bit complicated because of the changing of circumstances from the time when the contract and agreement was signed," Iranian Foreign Minister Manouchehr Mottaki said on an Indian news channel.
"I think both sides found out that there are some specific difficulties to implementing the project agreement as it is now," Mottaki said.
Iran wants the gas price linked to international oil prices, and is offering India gas at $7.20 per million British thermal units (Btu), with a 3 per cent annual increase, an Indian official said earlier this month.
But India says it's only ready to pay up to $4.25 per million Btu for the desperately needed gas, the official said.
The $8 billion pipeline was scheduled to be completed by 2011.
It is billed as a crucial way to ease India's energy shortage as its economy grows at one of the fastest rates in the world.
The pipeline would supply about 60 million cubic meters of gas a day to India and up to 30 million cubic meters a day to Pakistan.
Backers say it would help meet India's energy needs, provide Pakistan with hundreds of millions of dollars in transit fees, and give Iran a larger slice of an important market.
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