Iran refuses India, Pak to sell gas at proposed price

Dubai, July 15: Iran has refused to sell its gas to India and Pakistan at their proposed price.

Speaking to reporters, Iran's Oil Minister Kazem Vaziri-Hamaneh said the price proposed by India and Pakistan is based on their domestic prices.

He noted that the agreement with India about transferring gas has not been finalised yet.

''If the Indian side is not ready to buy our gas at its real price, we have no obligation to sell it at the price lower than the real one,'' he said.

India and Pakistan should forget buying Iran's gas in the low price, he said.

Iran's pricing strategy is to wait and see the results of the next round of the talks that are to resume in August, an official said.

India has said that the August meeting, to be attended by the three nations' deputy Oil and Energy Ministers, would be the last session of the talks over the gas deal.

India is keen to buy 90 million cubic metres of gas per day from Iran to be transferred through a 2,100-kilometer pipeline and Pakistan has put its daily demand at 60 million cubic metres.

Iran has offered its gas to be valued on the basis of the 10 per cent of the Brent oil prices, which is equal to 7.2 dollar per one million BTU with an annual increase of three per cent but, India has proposed the 4.25 dollar for each one million BTU for delivery at its borders.

UNI