ISLAMABAD, Pakistan, April 5 (UPI) -- The government in Islamabad gave special permission to the provincial government of Balochistan to use gas imported from a leg of a pipeline in Iran.
Balochistan becomes the first province in Pakistan to use gas imported from Iran for domestic use, the Pakistani newspaper Dawn reports.
A deal on a long-delayed natural gas pipeline from the South Pars gas complex in the Persian Gulf was signed March 16 by Pakistan and Iran. Iran says a portion of the project is completed in its territory, with plans to expand the project through southern Pakistan.
Lawmakers in Islamabad had singled out Iranian gas for industrial use, but Balochistan leaders directed a major portion of the gas for consumers in major cities in the southern province.
Officials said they would deal with pricing issues at a later date. Pakistan gets roughly 50 percent of its energy from natural gas, though domestic capacity is on the decline. Pakistan is faced with power shortfalls, creating rolling blackouts in parts of the country.
Pakistan could get around 750 million cubic feet of natural gas per day from Iran for the next 25 years through the pipeline deal.
