OREANDA-NEWS. August 30, 2013. Islamabad is striving to convince Chinese officials to join the energy pipeline project which is due to take Iran's rich gas reserves to Pakistan, sources said, adding that Pakistan has also devised a relevant draft agreement to ink with Beijing.

Informed Pakistani officials, who asked for anonymity due to the sensitivity of the issue, said that Germany-based consultancy firm ILF is conducting a route survey on the pipeline and will soon be completing its work.

According to the sources, the ILF company has confirmed the feasibility of implementing the project in China, specially considering that the country has built 4,000km of gas pipeline from its Western to Eastern borders.

Iran and Pakistan officially inaugurated the construction phase of a gas pipeline project in March which is due to take Iran's rich gas reserves to the energy-hungry South Asian nation.

The project kicked off in a ceremony attended by former Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad and his former Pakistani counterpart Asif Ali Zardari at the two countries' shared border region in Iran's Southeastern city of Chabahar.

The 2700-kilometer long pipeline was to supply gas for Pakistan and India which are suffering a lack of energy sources, but India has evaded talks. In 2011, Iran and Pakistan declared they would finalize the agreement bilaterally if India continued to be absent in the meeting.

Iran has already constructed more than 900 kilometers of the pipeline on its soil.

According to the project proposal, the pipeline will begin from Iran's Assalouyeh Energy Zone in the south and stretch over 1,100 km through Iran. In Pakistan, it will pass through Baluchistan and Sindh but officials now say the route may be changed if China agrees to the project.