A GAIL team would leave for Iran to continue the negotiations begun by theNational Iran Gas Company (NGEC) in March. The Iranians are now expected toidentify technical experts for the route planning of the offshore pipeline,that should reach Indian shores through some of the territorial waters ofneighbouring Pakistan.

Meanwhile, media reports from Pakistan say that Islamabad had given itsblessings to the onland gas pipeline linking India to the Iranian gasfields.Agency reports quoting petroleum ministry officials in Islamabad say that"It will be an onshore pipeline and Pakistan will get transit fees forproviding passage."

Sources in GAIL preferred silence, when probed. ``We cannot comment,'' aspokesman of the company said, adding that an ``overland pipeline had notbeen part of the discussions so far.''

Sources associated with the Indo-Iran talks added that the Iranians had notmentioned any dialogue with Pakistan either. The Iranian delegation had,however, seemed confident about overcoming trans-border glitches that hadheld up the project since it was first conceived in 1994.

The diplomatic glitches include tests and surveys along the territorialwaters of Pakistan. The sources said the Iranian delegation had seemedconfident of tackling such hurdles at their end.

The only explanation for the statements from across the border, say industrywatchers, could be President Clinton's visit. The positive vibes on thecross-border pipeline may be the military regime's way of sending out asignal that it was ready for trans-border commerce.

The Indo-Iran gas pipeline is among three trans-border pipelines on thedrawing board and the only one to have made any progress so far. The countryhas contemplated importing natural gas from Oman and from Bangladesh.

The Hydrocarbon Vision statement approved by a group of ministers say thatthe policy objectives of the coming 25 years was to ``ensure an adequateavailability by a mix of domestic gas imports through pipelines and importof LNG.'' The demand for natural gas is estimated to be 110 million metricstandard cubic metres (MMSCMD) now, but only 60 MMSCMD are available withinthe country.

The demand for gas is expected to jump to 151 MMSCMD by 2001-2002 to 231MMSCMD by 2006-2007. In the year 2025 the country's appetite for gas couldgrow to 391 MMSCMD. Some of the energy-starved industries are expected to befed by imported liquefied natural gas (LNG) supplies then.

Policy-makers a mix of LNG and pipeline gas imports. The Indo-Iran gaspipeline is expected to bring in between 50 million cubic metres (MCM) and75 MCM.

According to the ``Hydrocarbon Vision 2025'' statement prepared by a groupof ministers, natural gas would account for 20 per cent of the energy supplywithin the country 25 years from now. At present, gas accounts for 7 percent of the country's energy supplies and coal makes up 55 per cent of it,followed by oil at 35 per cent. Hydel power caters for 2 per cent of India'senergy requirement and nuclear power only accounts for 1 per cent of it.

The sub-sea gas pipeline from Oman went into the freezer when doubts wereraised about its technological feasibility. Prasad pointed out that offshorepipelines were not such a novelty anymore.

Other offshore pipeline projects, like the one linking Russia to Turkey, hadestablished the technological feasibility of underwater gas pipelines. Thenational gas company's negotiations in the aborted Oman gas pipeline projectand the still-alive proposal to bring in gas from Bangladesh, wererestricted to distributing the gas within the country.

Its involvement in the Iran gas pipeline project is more deep, but GAILbrass are not willing to spell out the extent of the company's commitment tothe $2 billion venture till its corporate structure had been finalised.Sources said the project framework may emerge out the discussions scheduledin Iran.