Iran ready to negotiate with Indian private sctor over gas

New Delhi, July 11 (UNI) Iran today said it is ready to negotiate on the Iran-India liquefied natural gas (LNG) contract with an Indian private player.

''We have already told the Indian government that if it is interested in giving the liquefied natural gas (LNG) contract to its private sector, Iran is ready to reach an agreement with the Indian private sector. In that case, the price that would prevail in the Indian region at the time of contract signing will be used as the basis,'' Special representative of the Iranian Minister of Petroleum on IPI and Director of International Affairs Department of the Ministry of Petroleum Hojatollah Ghanimifard told reporters in Tehran.

He also stated that transferring LNG sales contract to the private sector depends on the Indian side and, in that case, negotiations would be followed by the National Iranian Gas Company.

''Liquefied natural gas and peace pipeline contracts are separate matter and have nothing to do with each other. Liquefied natural gas contract has been signed between Iran and India while the peace pipeline contact is a trilateral deal among Iran, Pakistan and India,'' he added.

Mr Ghanimifard expressed hope that Indian and Pakistani olfficials would solve the remaining problems during the current month and added that agreement on inclusion of a ''price''line in the contract as the main achievement of the sixth round of trilateral negotiations.

He added that Petroleum and Natural Gas Minister Murli Deora has supported inclusion of a ''price review'' clause in the contract, which was Iran's logical proposal.

The special representative of the Iranian Minister of Petroleum in pipeline negotiations also stated that Iran's proposal on price was finally accepted by the other two sides after extensive negotiations in Tehran. The price clause was important because the crude oil and gas markets are constantly fluctuating.

He stated that after negotiations in February, the three countries officials came together in Tehran to talk about a trilateral agreement on price formula and it was decided that an agreement on various articles of the contract should be achieved within five months, that is, by the end of June.

''Fortunately, in spite of new year holidays and prior follow-ups, we asked Pakistan and India for their viewpoints and we forwarded Iran's proposed final text of the contract to Pakistan and India before negotiations in Tehran''.

Mr Ghanimifard added, '' After exchange of final texts of the contracts, it was decided that three countries should talk about points of difference''.

Referring to Tehran negotiations in June, Ghanimifard stated that 16 points of differences were discussed during Tehran negotiations and most of differences have been solved. ''At present, only 5-6 controversial paragraphs remain to be discussed''.

''It was decided that further negotiations in India should seek to remove the remaining 5-6 points of differences and to finalise the texts of two more documents. It was first decided that the sixth round of talks should be held in Pakistan, but India insisted that it should host the talks''.

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