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A senior Chinese government official has revealed that the country has backed away from a plan to install a major gas pipeline from Pakistan to China, thus dealing an indirect blow to a recently-approved project to install a key trunkline from Iran to Pakistan.

The pipeline to China was proposed as an important extension to the Iran-Pakistan link.

The Chinese official told Upstream that the National Energy Agency (NEA) has discussed the project several times and has opted not to pursue it for at least the next five years.

He said the pipeline project has questionable economic feasibility and technical reliability, as it will run through high mountains with complex terrain, giving rise to concerns of operational safety and maintenance requirements.

"We would prefer instead to import gas from Iran directly," he said.

His comments were made just days after Pakistan and Iran endorsed an agreement to build a pipeline to export Iranian gas from the South Pars field to Pakistan.

That pipeline is planned for installation from Iran's Assaluyeh Energy Zone in the south, stretching over 1100 kilometres through Iran, and passing through Balochistan and Sindh in Pakistan. The route was said to be subject to change if China were to take part.

China National Petroleum Corporation (CNPC), which has signed an initial agreement with National Iranian Oil Company (NIOC) to develop the 11th phase of the South Pars project, had earlier done som... >>>