ISLAMABAD, Pakistan, July 5 (UPI) -- Work on a natural gas pipeline from Iranian gas fields in the Persian Gulf should get started within the next six months, a Pakistani official said.
Iran aims to move natural gas from its South Pars gas complex in the Persian Gulf to Pakistan through the pipeline. Iran said it could start delivering more than 740 million cubic feet of gas per year to Pakistan by 2014.
Asim Hussain, Pakistan's federal minister for petroleum and natural resources, said work on the pipeline from Iran could begin within the next six months, Pakistan's daily newspaper The Nation reports.
Iran's official Islamic Republic News Agency reported Thursday that 683 miles of the natural gas pipeline were completed on the Iranian side of the border.
India was included in the original plans for the project, once dubbed the Peace Pipeline, but has balked on the project. The Iranian pipeline is also up against a Western-backed project from Turkmenistan that could service the region.
Pakistani officials, the newspaper added, were trying to find ways to overcome U.S. concerns regarding the Iranian project.
