Energy crisis forces India to join Iran gas pipeline project

By Mubarak Zeb Khan

ISLAMABAD, April 25: Differences between Pakistan and India over the Iran-Pakistan-India (IPI) gas pipeline project were resolved on Friday and the two countries agreed to start work on laying pipelines next year for procuring gas from Iran by December 2012.

Talks between the two countries to resolve the differences, mainly relating to transit fee and transportation tariff, failed in June last year, putting the $7.5 billion ‘peace pipeline’ project into cold storage. But the current energy crisis and spiralling oil prices brought them back to the table.

India showed urgency in resuming talks after the Chinese government expressed interest in joining the project, virtually replacing India. India did not take part in three rounds of talks held over the past nine months and its oil minister cancelled at the last minute a scheduled visit to Islamabad in February.

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More at http://www.dawn.com/2008/04/26/top1.htm

This ought to complicate the situation some. US companies feeding jobs to Iran's energy partner? I mean, under the 'if you're not with us you're against us' scenario, how will this work?

Resource crisis forcing compromise/cooperation between enemies...