New Delhi: Iran on January 25 offered 2.5 million tonnes of Liquiefied Natural Gas (LNG) to India although the fate of Indo-Iran gas pipeline, passing through Pakistan, remains uncertain due to security consideration.

Iranian Oil Minister Bijan Namdar Zanganeh, who met Petroleum Minister Ram Naik, side-stepped the pipeline issue to offer Indian national oil firms equity in its South Pars gas field, apparently in exchange for New Delhi buying 2.5 million tonnes per annum of LNG, highly-placed sources said.

Apparently taking cognizance of the recent explosions at oil installations in Pakistan, which substantiated India's concerns about the safe delivery of gas through the onland pipeline route, Zanganeh offered to sell natural gas in the form of LNG, which can be shipped.

India would study the offer and the domestic demand scenario particularly in the light of new gas discoveries and five million tonnes of LNG imports from Qatar, before committing to purchase gas from Iran, sources said.

Both Iran and Pakistan were keen on the 2,670-km-long and 48-inch diameter onland pipeline as it provided the former a cheap route to sell its vast gas reserves and the latter would have earned about $ 580 million transit fee from the $ 3.5 billion gas conduit.

PTI