Payvand, Iran from IRNA
July 22 2004
Iran begins building 140 km gas pipeline to Armenia: report
Tehran, July 22, IRNA — Iran has begun building a 140-km-long gas
pipeline to Armenia, said the Itar-Tass news agency monitored here
Thursday.
The two countries signed an agreement on the project worth around 120
million US dollars in May, when Iranian Oil Minister Bijan Namdar
Zanganeh visited Yerevan.
Under its provisions, Iran will be supplying 36 billion cubic meters
of natural gas to Armenia annually from 2007 through to 2027.
Itar-Tass, citing OPEC sources in Vienna, said that the pipeline
might be used to ship Iranian gas to Georgia, Ukraine and farther on
to Europe in the future.
The news agency said the sources had got the news from Armenian
ambassador to Tehran, Gegam Garibjian.
To make the whole scheme possible, a 550-kilometer-long section of
the pipeline will be laid at the floor of the Black Sea, stretching
from the Georgian port of Supsa to Feodosiya in the Crimea, it said.
According to the same sources, the project is estimated to cost about
five billion US dollars.
Forecasts suggest that once the project is implemented, the Iranian
gas supplies to Europe may reach 60 billion cubic meters a year, of
which Ukrainian imports will likely account for 10 billion cubic
meters.
Tehran has already a multi-billion-dollar contract with neighboring
Turkey to supply gas for 25 years.
The gas flow was launched in December 2001 via a 2,577-kilometer
pipeline, running from the northeastern city of Tabriz to Ankara,
which supplies gas from southern Iran near the Persian Gulf.
The contract has been a boon to Iran’s bid to become a sustainable
gas supplier to Turkey and Europe.
Looking for alternative markets, Tehran has also held talks with the
Persian Gulf littoral states and the Central Asian nations for the
sale of gas.
The country sits on the second largest proven gas reserves of the
world after Russia, which has been a headache for Iran by getting
into, what is feared to be, an unnecessary and costly competition.