New Delhi, June 29: The deadlock over the liquefied natural gas (LNG) deal with Tehran — in return for which India wants a stake in a producing oil field in Iran — could not be resolved in the current round of talks which ended here today.

Sources said two joint committees have now been formed to further discuss the issues involved. One of these committees will grapple with the issues connected with the supply and price of LNG. The other committee will try and find a way out of the impasse over the stake in the Iranian oil field that India is seeking.

The committees are expected to submit their reports by mid-August. A meeting of the joint India-Iran group on co-operation in the hydrocarbons sector will then be held either in August-end or the first week of September to take the issue further.

While Iran is desperately seeking an assured market for its huge natural gas reserves, India wants to be compensated for the high cost of the gas with a stake for ONGC-Videsh (OVL) in a discovered Iranian oil field.

Iran has offered a share in Husseinieh-Khush oil field but wants OVL to come through the competitive bidding process. However, India is sticking to its stand that the MoU signed between the two countries in January 2003 states that OVL would get the stake on a nomination basis.

Iranian deputy oil minister Sayed Mohammad Hadi Nejad-Hosseinian led the 10-member Iranian team at the two-day official level talks.

India is ready to import 5 million tonnes of LNG from Iran every year, which would involve a huge investment in setting up an import terminal and also acquiring special cryogenic ships.

It expects part of this cost to be recovered through a return from a producing oil field as Iran will be making an assured profit through gas sales to India over a period of 25 years.

Iran has proposed to pay a 15 per cent return on OVL investments in developing the field.