Tehran urges Delhi to go ahead with plan

The roadmap for the pipeline project was also charted out.

R Javadi, managing director of National Iranian Gas Export Company (NIGEC), told Petroleum Ministry officials that total international investment in Iran was $6.8 billion and total lending $9.4 billion. This includes sectors such as petroleum, petrochemicals, mining and power.

Javadi told Indian officials that under the Sanctions Act, even US companies were permitted to take sub-contracts. He said the Dubai subsidiary of US major Halliburton was currently executing a sub-contract worth $100 million while Bechtel was in talks with Tehran over participation in an LNG contract.

The NIGEC managing director said France’s TOTAL, Italy’s ENI and AGIP, Stat Oil of Norway, China’s CNPC, Australia’s BHP, JGC of Japan and Germany’s Linde were the multinationals involved in petroleum sector.

At the third India-Iran joint working group, which met in Tehran from June 11 to 13, the two sides had focused on ‘‘term sheets (scope of the agreement)’’ for the pipeline and prepared a roadmap for the project despite US concerns.