ITAR-TASS, Russia
July 22 2004

Iran begins building 140 km-long gas pipeline to Armenia

VIENNA, July 22 (Itar-Tass) – Iran has begun building a 140
kilometers-long gas pipeline to Armenia, OPEC sources said here
Thursday quoting the Armenian ambassador to Teheran, Gegam
Garibjanian.

The cost of which stands at around 120 million U.S. dollars, they
said.

The two countries signed an agreement on the project in May, when the
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.

OPEC sources also indicated that in the future the pipeline might be
used to ship Iranian gas to Georgia, Ukraine and farther on to
Europe.

To make the whole scheme possible, a 550 kilometers-long section of
the pipeline will laid at the floor of the Black Sea, stretching
half-latitudinally from the Georgian port of Supsa to Feodosiya in
the Crimea, the sources said, adding that the its projected cost was
in the neighborhood of 5 billion U.S. dollars.

Forecasts suggest that once the project is implemented, the Iranian
gas supplies to Europe may reach 60 billion cubic meters a year, and
Ukrainian imports will likely account for 10 billion cubic meters out
of that amount.

A decision on whether or not to extend the initial 140 kilometers of
the pipeline must be taken in Yerevan, the sources said.