July 17th, 2007
Via RIA Novosti, news that Iran, Pakistan, and India have agreed on a formula for the price of natural gas to be pumped through a pipeline that will link the three countries. According to the report, the deal has
“…removed the main obstacle to the signing of a three-way agreement on building the 2,300 km Iran-Pakistan-India (IPI) pipeline with an estimated price tag of $7.5 billion. The first deliveries from gas-rich Iran are expected in 2011.”
Am sure that both India and Iran are under pressure from the U.S. not to do business with Iran but, with China and so many other Asian countries also vying to tap into Iranian reserves to satisfy their thirst for oil & gas, there seems little doubt that this project will take off. A longer term, more strategic question is how India and Pakistan – two regional rivals – will ultimately manage and share this pipeline system in the face of potential geopolitical crises that may flare up in the future.
Focusing primarily on The New Seven Sisters - the largely state owned petroleum companies from the emerging world that have become key players in the oil & gas industry as identified by Carola Hoyos, Chief Energy Correspondent for The Financial Times - but spanning other nascent opportunities around the globe that may hold potential in the years ahead, Wildcats & Black Sheep is a place for the adventurous to contemplate & evaluate the emerging markets of tomorrow.