NO ONE WANTED TO BUY THE 5TH BLOCK

A1+
[04:43 pm] 10 April, 2006

The sale of the 5th block of the Hrazdan heat-electric generating
plant has nothing to do with the reduction of the gas price: at least
this is what RA Prime Minister Andranik Margaryan claims.

“We sold the 5th block not in order to reduce the price of gas as it
remains the same – 110USD. The sale has nothing to do with the price”,
the Prime Minister says.

According to him, this is a successful deal. “Years ago we wanted
to give the plant to them by the program “Property for Debt”. One
of the conditions was that they must reconstruct the plant. They did
not agree.

We put it up to auction but no one wanted to buy it”, Andranik
Margaryan informed. He claimed that Iran has never been a potential
buyer. They just wanted to give loans for 20-25 years after which
Armenia would have to return the sum.

According to the Prime Minister, the plant was sold for 250 million
USD. “One of the conditions was that they must invest 140 million USD
within two years. And this is not a threat to our energy security,
but vice versa”.