KARACHI, Pakistan, Jan. 4 (UPI) -- Islamabad and other Asian partners are keen to give momentum to a multilateral natural gas pipeline from Iranian gas fields, a Pakistani official said.
Naveed Qamar, the Pakistani federal minister for petroleum and natural resources, said his country was resolved to bring the Iran-Pakistan-India gas pipeline to life by 2014, Iran's semiofficial Fars News Agency reports.
Tehran and Islamabad finalized a deal in June for the delivery of 750 million cubic feet of natural gas through the pipeline from the South Pars gas complex in the Persian Gulf.
India was included in initial plans for the project but stayed on the sidelines since 2008 because of pricing issues with Iran and concerns over the security of the pipeline through Pakistan.
The Iranian Labor News Agency, however, reported Monday that New Delhi was willing to rejoin IPI.
Fars added that "an official source" said international companies have expressed interest in financing the project, but no decisions were made yet.
The project is up against a Western-backed project to ship gas from Turkmenistan through Afghanistan, Pakistan and India.
Washington opposes IPI because of its economic potential for sanction-strapped Iran.
