TEHRAN, Sept. 22 (UPI) -- Agreements reached on the Iran-Pakistan-India natural gas pipeline were drafted so that India may join the project eventually, Iranian gas executives said.
Reza Kassaeizadeh, the managing director of the National Iranian Gas Export Co., said in an interview with the Fars News Agency there was room for India in the long-delayed gas pipeline.
"Now, we have signed the agreement in a form that allows India to join it," he said.
Islamabad and Tehran signed a bilateral deal for the proposed 1,724-mile IPI natural gas pipeline earlier this year. Pakistan would receive 750 million cubic feet per day from the South Pars gas field in Iran to generate electricity under the terms of a 25-year deal.
Iranian and Pakistani officials are scheduled to sign the provisions for the technical operations of the gas transfer deal for IPI by the end of September.
Kassaeizadeh went on to say the IPI pipeline was open for India to join the project at a later date.
"India and other states in the region and even in the world need Iran's gas," he said. "Iran does not have any problem for sealing an agreement with them."
Separately, a delegation from New Delhi met officials from the Turkmen government to discuss the terms of the Turkmenistan-Afghanistan-Pakistan-India pipeline, a rival Western-backed option.
