Speaking in an anti-terrorism seminar in Jaipur, India, he referred to New Delhi’s interest to invest in the field and said, “Ministry of Petroleum determines negotiations conditions for the investment in Farzad-B.”
Under pressure from the United States, India’s ONGC Videsh, the overseas arm of the India’s state-owned Oil and Natural Gas Corporation delayed and ultimately relinquished development of Farzad-B offshore natural gas block.
He also said that with the removal of sanctions, there is no problem for receiving Iran’s delayed demands over oil transactions with India.
“It is up to Iran to decide the way and amount of reimbursing the arrears,” Rahimpour added.
On India’s lack of action over investing in Chahbahar Port despite of its expressed interest, the deputy foreign minister said Iran is ready to assign one of the port’s development projects to India.
He said Iran and India are cooperating in construction of fertilizer plant, and railroads connecting Chahbahar to Afghanistan.
Iran’s ex-ambassador to New Delhi, said during his ongoing visit he held talks with Indian officials on banking and financial issues, as well as global and regional developments.
Last December, managing director of the National Iranian Gas Export Company (NIGEC) said Tehran and New Delhi are seriously negotiating construction of a trans Oman Sea-Indian Ocean pipeline to transfer gas to the energy hungry India.
“The 4.5-billion pipeline is set to pump 31.5 mcm of Iran’s gas to India’s western Gurjarat port,” Ali-Reza Kameli told reporters on the sidelines of the Fifth World Energy Policy Summit in New Delhi.
He said the talks are underway with the pipeline construction company South Asia Gas Enterprise (SAGE) which has the expertise for laying deepwater gas pipelines.
New Delhi also withdrew from the Iran-Pakistan-India pipeline project slated to bring 11.3 bcm meters of Iranian natural gas per year to India.
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