TEHRAN, June 3 (UPI) -- The contract for a gas pipeline from the South Pars gas field in Iran to Pakistan will be finalized next week, Iranian executives said.
Officials from Iran and Pakistan signed an agreement March 16 for a long-delayed project to ship gas eastward from the giant offshore South Pars gas field in the Persian Gulf.
Hojjatollah Ghanimifard, a top investment director at the National Iranian Oil Co., told the Platts news service the $7 billion contract would be finalized next week.
"We have scheduled for the last exchange of papers on Tuesday and afterward everything will be finished," he said.
First gas deliveries through the pipeline are expected by 2015, he said. Pakistan has contracted 750,000 cubic feet of gas per day through the pipeline under the terms of the 25-year deal.
Pakistan expects to save $1 billion each year in energy costs when the pipeline goes into service.
New Delhi was originally slated to join the project. Washington, however, has pressured its partners in India to find other options.
Iran and Pakistan said India was welcome to join the project at a later date.
