China to build Pakistan pipeline for Iran gas
China and Pakistan will sign a deal this week for a pipeline to bring natural gas from Iran, Pakistani officials have told The Wall Street Journal.
The deal, worth $2 billion, will be finalized during a visit by Chinese President Xi Jinping to Islamabad.
“We’re building it. The process has started,” The Journal quoted Pakistani Petroleum Minister Shahid Khaqan Abbasi as saying.
Pakistan has reportedly been negotiating for months with China to build the pipeline. The much-needed gas will help Pakistan fuel its power-generation plants and relieve it from crippling power shortages.
Transferring gas from Iran is the simplest and cheapest option, but Pakistan has been dragging its feet in the face of US opposition.
The plan was conceived in 1995 under the “Peace Pipeline” scheme which would extend to India but New Delhi backed out under US pressures.
Iran has completed its portion of the project, which includes a 900-kilometer pipeline extending from Assaluyeh on the Persian Gulf to its border with Pakistan.
Pakistan has not started construction, fearing it might anger the Americans. The country has asked the Iranians and the Chinese to build it in order to avoid possible US sanctions.
Islamabad is reportedly negotiating with China Petroleum Pipeline Bureau, a subsidiary of Chinese energy giant China National Petroleum Corporation, to complete the project.
It includes building 700 kilometers (435 miles) of pipeline from Pakistan’s port of Gwadar to Nawabshah and hook up to the nationwide gas grid from there.
According to The Journal, China will fund 85% of the project and Pakistan will foot the rest of the bill.
Pakistan will also build the remaining extension of the pipeline from Gwadar to the Iranian border for a length of 80 kilometers.
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