India, Pakistan and Iran are close to signing an agreement on transporting natural gas from Iran to the two South Asian countries via a land pipeline by 2011, Indian officials said Friday. The three countries are confident of resolving all issues on the project by next month, India's petroleum secretary M.S. Srinivasan told reporters. «I am very glad we have reached to a great extent an agreement on all the sides,» India's Petroleum Minister Murli Deora added. The petroleum secretaries of India and Pakistan and the director of the National Iran Oil Company have been meeting in New Delhi since Wednesday to close a deal. A pricing structure is still being discussed, the Associated Press reported. The pipeline would run 2,600 kilometers (1,625 miles) from Iran to India through Pakistan and initially carry 60 million cubic meters (2,120 million cubic feet) of gas a day. An Iranian demand for revising the gas price every three years is still to be resolved, India's Srinivasan said. Another issue being discussed is the transit fee that Pakistan will receive for allowing transit of the gas to India, said Waqar Ahmed, Pakistan's petroleum secretary. «We are very close to resolving the entire thing. Next month, the ministers should be able to meet in Islamabad and then in Iran,» Srinivasan said.
