According to the agreement, Iran will ship five million tons of liquefied natural gas (LNG) to India per annum for the next 25 years, with an option to increase the amount to 7.5 million tons. Initial negotiations on the agreement began last November following months of talks about the possibility of India investing in Irans oil and gas sectors. India also voiced interest in participating in downstream LNG production and processing projects in the South Pars field. The South Pars field, which contains 60 percent of Irans gas and 10 percent of the worlds natural gas reserves, is definitely a suitable place for investment. India is one of the biggest consumers of liquefied natural gas and plans to meet part of its daily needs of 120 million cubic meters from Iran. Therefore, in addition to the deal to export LNG, great importance is attached to the plan to transfer Iranian natural gas to India through a pipeline. Iran sits on the second largest natural gas reserve in the world and enjoys a strategic position in the international market due to its 18-percent share of the global stockpile, i.e. five times North Americas reserves, four times Europes, and three times the Asia/Pacific regions. Hence, Iran, thanks to its unique geographic location, can play a key role in exporting gas to the world and link the Middle Easts large gas reserves to major consumers in Europe and Asia. To this end, Iran has been exporting gas to Turkey since 2001. As part of its long-term strategy, Iran is planning to build a gas pipeline to India via Pakistan, and the three countries are currently exploring avenues to achieve the goal. Since the project could play an effective role in the expansion of regional cooperation and could also help reduce tension in South Asia, the pipeline has been dubbed the “peace pipeline” by some pundits. The Iran-India agreement on LNG exports will pave the way for the implementation of the project to pipe Iranian gas to India via Pakistan, and the dream of the peace pipeline could become reality in the near future. PIN/MNA