Qatar-Pakistan gas pipeline pact soon

The Gulf-South Asia Gas (Gusa) gas pipeline project is coming closer to reality with two major agreements set for signing shortly - following Tuesday's negotiations between Sharjah-based Crescent Petroleum and Pakistan officials.

Once the two agreements are signed, initiatives for financing the multi-million dollar project will begin.

Mohammed Makkawi, Gusa project director, Crescent Petroleum, told Gulf News that "fruitful" negotiations were held with Pakistan's Ministry of Petroleum and the Interstate Gas Co Ltd (IGCL) on Monday and Tuesday.

"We set out the parameters for finalising the General Sales Purchase Agreement (GSPA) and followed up with other details in Islamabad and Karachi respectively," he said.

Simultaneously, the Develo-pment and Fiscal Agreement (DFA) with Qatar Petroleum for upstream development will also be signed shortly.

"There's urgency to sign both agreements within a short span. We are under pressure to finalise the agreements as soon as possible," he said, hinting that the signing could take place in a few weeks.

"All the parties concerned are keen to take the project forward quickly," he added.

Under the Gusa project, some 1,600 million cubic feet per day (mcfd) of natural gas will be supplied via pipeline from Qatar to Pakistan initially - although the ultimate capacity is said to be 3,400 mcfd of gas.

Once the two agreements are signed, the financing of the project will be taken up.

"A financial strategy is in place but implementation requires you have agreements in place. Banks are willing to support the project," he said.

Currently, Pakistan will be the only market for gas exports under Gusa, although India did figure initially.

"For gas exports to India, we will cooperate with Iran. We believe combining more than one source of gas will add comfort to India."

Holland's Fugro has completed a $4 million technical and commercial routes survey contract for the Iran-India under-sea gas pipeline.

Gusa was initiated in 1989 and a number of agreements followed. But the project hit a snag in 1995 over differences in gas pricing with Qatar after which the scope of the project had to be reconfigured.