Pakistan Minister Denies Newspaper Report About Iran Gas Pipeline Project

Pakistan’s Federal Minister for Petroleum and Natural Resources Shahid Khaqan Abbasi has rejected statements attributed to him by the Financial Times newspaper on Iran-Pakistan gas pipeline, reported IRNA news agency.

On Friday, the UK based newspaper reported that Pakistan has convinced Iran to step back from demanding $200 mn a month from January 1 to compensate for Islamabad’s failure to begin receiving gas from Iran’s South Pars gas field.

In an exclusive interview with IRNA on Saturday Abbasi reiterated that he had never made such a statement in his recent interview with the FT.

Abbasi told IRNA that officials from Iran’s NIOC would visit Islamabad in the next few days to meet officials of Pakistan’s Inter State Gas Systems (ISGS) to discuss the way to implement the Iran-Pakistan gas pipeline project and talk about outstanding issues.