During the meeting in Pakistan's presidential palace in Islamabad on Wednesday, the Pakistani president and the Iranian oil minister discussed mutual cooperation in the energy sector.
President Zardari pointed to developing bilateral ties between Iran and Pakistan, and said, "Officials of the two countries have very good interactions in different fields, specially in the energy sector."
The Iranian oil minister, for his part, thanked President Zardari's support for increasing interactions and mutual cooperation between the two countries, specially in the energy sector.
Today, Iranian and Pakistani oil ministers inaugurated construction of the 781-kilometer-long Pakistani side of the IP gas pipeline which is due to take Iran's rich gas reserves to the energy-hungry South Asian nation.
An Iranian-Pakistani joint contractor has been commissioned to begin construction of the IP gas pipeline.
Yesterday, Iranian Oil Minister Rostam Qassemi and Managing Director of the National Iranian Gas Company (NIGC) Javad Oji arrived in Pakistan to hold the final talks on the IP gas pipeline construction.
The Iranian oil minister and his accompanying delegation agreed with their Pakistani counterpart to set up a joint contracting company between the two countries in a bid to complete the construction of the IP gas pipeline in next 15 months. The mega project will come on stream in December 2014.
Apart from it, both countries also discussed the finances involved in the project. The interest rate for Iran's 500-million-dollar loan to Pakistan and the date for the start of the repayment of the loan by Pakistan were among other topics in the discussions.
Last week, Tehran and Islamabad discussed the scope of work under the mega project of $1.5 billion IP gas line.
Pakistani President Asif Ali Zardari underlined his support for the completion of Iran-Pakistan gas pipeline which will help soothe Pakistan's energy crisis.
Zardari said that Pakistan attaches great importance to early completion of Iran-Pakistan Gas Pipeline project in view of the energy crisis in the country, and called for stepped up efforts for early completion of all Pak-Iran bilateral projects.
The IP gas pipeline stretches from Iran-Pakistan border to Navabshah region in Pakistan and it covers 781 km of the total 1,881 km of the pipeline.
