Govt considering three options for transporting gas from Iran

New Delhi, Apr 16 (UNI) The government is yet to take a decision on the method of transporting gas from Iran and has three options before it--the Iran-India-Pakistan (IPI) pipeline, shipping LNG through tankers and picking up gas from the Pakistan border, Minister of State for External Affairs Anand Sharma said today.

Mr Sharma told a seminar on 'India's Expanding Gas Markets', organised by the Centre for Resources Management of the Observer Research Foundation (ORF), that India has three options before it to import gas from Iran.

''The government is studying all the options and will take a final decision taking into account all factors, including the geo-political situation,'' Mr. Sharma said in his inaugural address.

Asserting that not only economics but geo-politics also played an important role in decision-making on energy options, Mr Anand Sharma said the government had taken many initiatives to ensure energy security.

He said that according to projects, the demand for energy was expected to rase by more than 50 per cent in the coming two decades.

The Minister said the government was considering various factors including 'energy security and the increasing role of gas world over, the environment factor, especially in view of global warming, and the stability factor which, unlike the crude oil, natural gas can offer to the growing Indian economy.

''Thrust, understanding and commitments have to be factored into while taking any decision on pipelines," the Minister said.

Calling for greater partnerships between public sector and private players in the area, the Minister complimented the Reliance Industries for playing a huge role in petroleum field.

India's GDP is expected to grow at 9 per cent to become the third largest economy by 2020, and at this rate, the commercial energy demand is expected to be at least 6 per cent.

At present, India has one of the lowest pipeline concentration in the world, with the HBJ pipeline being the only cross country pipeline covering north and the west markets.

Although India has huge reserves of natural gas, lack of investments with regulatory environment not conducive for investment, limited use of state-of-the-art technology had led to good exploration of only 18 per cent of sedimentary basins.

Projections show that if the share of natural gas in India's energy mix rises to 25 per cent by 2032 from the present nine per cent, the gas demand would increase five-fold to nearly 532 MMSCMD, an increase of 7 per cent per annum.

UNI