Aryanews- Construction of a natural gas pipeline from  the South Pars gas field to Pakistan and possibly India could start in Iranian territory in May, executives said.
Officials from Iran and Pakistan signed an agreement March 16 for a long-delayed project to ship gas east from the giant offshore South Pars gas field in the Persian Gulf.
Washington opposes the project because of the economic incentive for Iran. New Delhi, meanwhile, said in March it was interested in joining the project.
Resa Kasaizadeh, the head of the National Iranian Gas Export Co., told the Iranian Oil Ministry's Petroenergy Information Network that construction on the Iranian leg of the pipeline could start as early as May. Pakistan, he added, would get gas from the pipeline by March
2014.
He stressed, meanwhile, that the "door is open" for India and possibly China to buy gas from Iran. Iran sits on some of the largest oil and gas deposits in the world, but struggles to find reliable customers because of economic pressure from Washington over Iran's controversial nuclear program.
Kasaizadeh estimates about 680 miles of the pipeline would run through Iran and another 620 miles would travel through Pakistan. The pipeline could eventually transport as much as 750 million cubic feet of natural gas per day.