Iran, Pakistan meet on ‘peace pipeline’ without India
Iran and Pakistan may finalize the so-called peace pipeline project Tuesday, but the status of India’s involvement remains unclear.
India had stayed out of the recent meetings between the parties involved in the Iran-Pakistan-India pipeline, which would send Iranian gas to Pakistan and then to India.
India and Pakistan have not come to terms on transit fees.
Hojjatollah Ghanimifard, the Iranian Oil Ministry’s representative to the pipeline talks, said the agenda for the meeting Tuesday is final reading of the deal’s wording, the Tehran Times reports.
He said the price for the natural gas from Iran would be set according to a pre-determined formula, based largely on what Japan pays for natural gas, as the largest consumer in the world.
The Hindu reports the pricing would be reviewed every three years, unless there are abnormal moves in the market. Then it would be reviewed after two years, and each year after that.
India, which didn’t attend the previous meeting on the pipeline, hasn’t said it would attend. It is being pressed by the United States not to deal with Iran.
’06 Prudhoe Bay leak costs BP $20M
BP pleaded guilty to a misdemeanor charge and agreed to pay $20 million as damage control over company mistakes takes a $303.5 million toll.
The company agreed to the multimillion-dollar settlement as federal prosecutors targeted the company not only for the massive northern Alaska oil leak, but also a trading scheme to manipulate propane prices, the Houston Chronicle reports.
Pipelines in BP’s Alaskan pipeline infrastructure sprung leaks twice last year, prompting a partial shut-in of supplies in the fall. BP was accused of violating Alaska’s water laws.
The company will not face any other state or federal charges related to the Prudhoe Bay, Alaska, leaks. It is also spending $250 million to bolster the oil fields’ infrastructure.
BP will be on probation in Alaska for three years as well as pay a $12 million fine after pleading guilty to a violation of the U.S. Federal Water Pollution Control Act. It will pay $4 million in restitution to Alaska and another $4 million to the National Fish and Wildlife Foundation.
Israel, Turkey talk multipurpose pipelines
The energy ministers of Turkey and Israel have met in Ankara as part of ongoing talks to link the world’s major energy transit country with a country of increased demand.
Israel is looking to Turkey, where much of the world’s Asia to Europe pipelines run through, for not only oil and natural gas, but electricity, water and fiber optics.
Israeli Minister of National Infrastructures Benjamin Ben-Eliezer and Turkish Energy and Natural Resources Minister Hilmi Guler tasked teams within their ministries to draft an agreement on such a deal. The two sides would also expand on already drafted preliminary feasibility studies, Globes Online reports.
The project would see five pipelines laid beneath the Mediterranean Sea from Ceyhan, Turkey, to Haifa, Israel.
Exactly where Turkey would get the feedstock from is not clear. The already pumping Baku-Tbilisi-Ceyhan pipeline could be extended or a proposed Samsun-Ceyhan pipeline made longer.
Today’s Zaman reports another option is extending the pipeline from massive oil fields in Kirkuk, Iraq.
