02-13-2008, 03:32 AM
[center]<b><span style='font-size:21pt;line-height:100%'>Iran not to wait for India endlessly</span></b>[/center]
NEW DELHI (APP) - Iran has said it could not wait endlessly for India to join Iran-Pakistan-India gas pipeline project, according to media reports here Tuesday quoting Iranian foreign ministry spokesman.
The reports also quoted the Iranian spokesman Mohammad Ali Hosseini as denying existence of any contract for export of liquefied natural gas to India.
âIt (LNG contract) was not agreed. It was not finalised between the two countries in June 2005,â the spokesman said, according to the reports.
A consortium of Indian Oil, GAIL and Bharat Petroleum had signed a Gas Sales and Purchase Agreement (GSPA) for import of five million tons of LNG for 25 years with National Iranian Gas Export Co (NIGEC) on June 13, 2005.
While Tehran has insisted that the contract had to be ratified by the National Iranian Oil Co, the parent firm of NIGEC.
The NIOC has refused to ratify the contract unless the gas price is raised. India has been boycotting trilateral talks on IPI project since July 2007, taking the plea that first it wants to resolve transit fee issue with Islamabad.
Islamabad had invited Indian Petroleum Minister Murli Deora to visit Islamabad on February 7 and 8 but India declined the request saying that talks would be held after elections in Pakistan.
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