India has offered to invest $20 billion in Iran’s petrochemical, fertilizer and liquefied natural gas (LNG) facilities and in return sought cheap natural gas and land to set up the units.
Oil Minister Dharmendra Pradhan, who is in Iran with a delegation of industry executives for two days, discussed with his counterpart several outstanding issues related to the energy sector.
“Pradhan conveyed to the Iranian side that Indian companies could invest up to $20 billion and were interested in setting up petrochemical and fertilizer plants, including in the Chabahar Special Economic Zone, either through joint ventures between Indian and Iranian public sector companies or with private sector partners,” according to a statement from the Indian Oil Ministry. Mr. Pradhan has requested Iran to allocate adequate land in the SEZ.
He also urged Iran for a favourable treatment in the pricing of gas for India. The minister also wanted supply of gas at a competitive price and on a long-term basis for the life of the joint venture projects that Indian companies were interested in setting up.
India was also keen to set up a gas cracker unit and a liquefied petroleum gas extraction unit in Chabahar and ways of transporting gas to India from Iran including through a planned Iran-Pakistan-India pipeline were discussed.The two sides also discussed the award of rights to Indian firms to develop Farzad-B gas fields and the pending payments by Indian refiners towards Iran’s oil purchases.
