IRAN-ARMENIA GAS PIPELINE TO BE OPERATIONAL DEC. 2006

Mehr News Agency, Iran
April 9 2006

TEHRAN, Apr. 9 (MNA) — The first phase of Iran-Armenia gas export
pipeline is expected to kick off in early December 2006, technical and
foreign relations director of Armenia Energy Ministry Leon Vartanian
announced on Sunday.

“The project is moving at desirable pace and it is going to come on
stream 30 days earlier than anticipated time,” the Persian service
of ISNA quoted Vartanian as saying, adding that the pipeline is 40
km long within the Armenian territory.

Elsewhere in the news, Iran’s oil minister, Seyyed Kazem
Vaziri-Hamaneh, stated that the country is exporting gas to
Nakhichevan, Azerbaijan Republic, on energy exchange basis and
several other gas export plans to the neighboring countries are
under consideration.

A natural gas sale to Armenia is Iran’s third largest long-term
contract in this sector after the export agreements to Turkey and
UAE. The deal is projected at the daily volume of nine million
cubic meters.