Indian minister urges Iran to honour gas deal
Saturday, April 28, 2007
NEW DELHI: India has urged Iran to honour a 22-billion dollar natural gas sales deal concluded two years ago, warning Tehran it could lose credibility if it went back on the agreement, a report said on Friday.
Indian Oil Minister Murli Deora conveyed the message to Iran’s leadership during an unscheduled visit to Tehran on Thursday, the Press Trust of India news agency reported.
Deora told Iranian officials that Tehran could get business from other countries but stood to lose its credibility as a reliable source of energy if it faltered on the implementation of the June 2005 deal, it reported.
An Indian official accompanying Deora was quoted as saying that the delegation “had a very good 50-minute meeting with the Iranian president at the end of which Mahmoud (Ahmadinejad) instructed his oil minister to look at ways of early implementation of the deal”.
India is supposed to get five million tonnes of liquefied natural gas annually over a 25-year period from 2009 under the 22-billion-dollar-agreement. But the accord has since hit a snag over pricing, with reports last week saying Iran had decided to ask for more money – at least 5.1 dollars per million British thermal unit (mBtu) instead of the agreed 3.2 dollars.
Late last year, Deora said India was willing to consider a new price provided it was not too steep. afp
Oh dear. Hindustan seems to have lost the nuclear and the gas deal.
First the US-Hindustan nuclear deal ends up in hot waters and now this. Hindustan should had stated clearly whether it wanted the US or the Iranian energy couple of years back.
I think passing that UN resolution against Iran was a big big mistake for Hindustan!