Senior officials from India, Iran and Pakistan are attending a two-day workshop that began deliberations here Monday to work out technical details of the multi-billion dollar tri-nation gas pipeline project, Indo-Asian News Service reported.

Iranian Deputy Oil Minister for International Affairs Hadi Nejad-Hosseinian is leading the team from his country, while Interstate Gas Company Limited (IGCL) Managing Director Saed Hassan Nawab is heading the Pakistani delegation.

The Pakistan government has assigned IGCL the task of handling the pipeline gas import.

Representatives from GAIL India Ltd. and Indian Oil Corporation are attending the workshop on behalf of India.

The decision to hold the workshop was taken during the Joint Working Group meetings between India and Pakistan and between India and Iran to set up technical level panels to discuss specifications about the pipeline.

Technical aspects of the pipeline are being discussed. The objective of the workshop is to find out international best practices and whether Indian steel plate manufacturers would be able to make the pipelines required for the project.

The technical workshop would also help the three countries to better assess the project cost, which is currently being estimated to be over 7 billion US dollars.

Source: Xinhua