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March 28th, 2012 
FAKE NEWS for the Zionist agenda “There appears to be a visible decline in the Pakistani government’s interest in the IP project due to mounting pressure by the United States,” Pakistan’s financial daily Business Recorder quoted officials privy to the deliberations related to the project as saying on Wednesday.
Pakistan’s Petroleum Ministry has indefinitely postponed a visit to Iran by Minister of Petroleum and Natural Resources Asim Hussain that was planned for mid March, after the World Bank approved a $1.09 billion loan for Islamabad on March 20.
The paper cited an official of National Engineering Service Pakistan (NESPAK) that is working on the IP project as saying that the Islamabad government has not yet adopted any measures indicating that it would defer the IP project.
“NESPAK and ILF Germany are still working on the project and the Inter State Gas System, the state-run organization responsible for completing the IP and Turkmenistan-Afghanistan-Pakistan-India gas pipeline project, recently deputed two additional mid-level officials in Lahore to enhance the pace of work at the IP project,” he added.
The official noted that the Pakistani government may postpone the tendering of the project due to increasing US pressure, emphasizing that there is no delay on the part of the NESPAK and ILF.
Pakistan is facing a serious energy crisis that has already damaged its economy. The government has failed to rise up to the challenge of addressing the problem in the course of the past four years.
Pakistani President Asif Ali Zardari said on Monday that Islamabad would go ahead with the IP gas pipeline project, in defiance of US unilateral sanctions against the Iranian energy sector.
Energy-hungry Pakistan is looking to increase its fuel imports from various sources, including Iran, to reduce power shortages that have crippled the country’s industries and shaved percentage points off its GDP growth.
In addition to importing oil from Iran, Islamabad has been in talks with Tehran over the construction of a gas pipeline that will transfer Iranian natural gas to Pakistan.
The multi-billion-dollar gas pipeline aims to export a daily amount of 21.5 million cubic meters (or 7.8 billion cubic meters per year) of the Iranian natural gas to Pakistan.
The maximum daily gas transfer capacity of the 56-inch pipeline, which runs over 900 km of Iran’s soil from Asalouyeh in Bushehr Province to the city of Iranshahr in Sistan and Baluchestan Province, has been estimated at 110 million cubic meters.
SF/MB
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