The Russian Oil and Gas Report (Russia)
March 24, 2004, Wednesday

IRAN-ARMENIA GAS PIPELINE MAY REACH EUROPEAN UNION

The Iran-Armenia gas pipeline, the contract on construction of which
will be signed very soon, may be extended through Georgia to Ukraine
and further to European Union countries, reports Armenian Energy
Minister Armen Movsisyan. It is possible that the pipeline may be
build from Iran through Armenia and Georgia and further on the floor
of the Black Sea to Ukraine. The minister states, “After completion
of the Blue Stream project construction of long offshore gas
pipelines is already not a fantasy. Iran, Turkmenistan, and what is
the most important, European Union, want this. Europe plans to extend
the gas pipeline with Iranian and Turkmen gas crossing Armenia to its
territory. But this is a matter of serious and long negotiations that
also influences other countries that currently receive Russian gas.”

In 2002, the Kiev-based research institute VNIPItransgaz prepared a
business plan of the project of gas pipeline construction via the
route Iran-Armenia-Georgia-Ukraine-Europe with construction of 550
kilometers of pipes on the floor of the Black Sea from the Georgian
pot of Supsa to Feodosia in the Crimea. The project was estimated at
$5 billion. The gas supplies were estimated at up to 60 billion cubic
meters a year including 10 billion cubic meters or Ukraine.

Source: Vremya Novostey, March 23, 2004