IRAN-ARMENIA PIPELINE TO OPEN ‘IN MARCH OR APRIL’
By Astghik Bedevian

Radio Liberty, Czech Rep.
Feb 5 2007

The first Armenian section of a key gas pipeline running from
neighboring Iran will be officially inaugurated next month or in
April at the latest, Energy Minister Armen Movsisian said on Monday.

Movsisian told RFE/RL that he will fly to Tehran later this week to
discuss with top Iranian officials "the opening of the gas pipeline
and other issues of mutual interest." "We will decide the day when
[the pipeline] will be opened," he said, adding that that will happen
"in March or April."

Work on the 40-kilometer section, financed and carried out by the
Iranian side, was supposed to be finished by the end of December. Its
official launch was postponed for reasons that remain unclear.

Armenian officials have blamed bad weather and unspecified "technical
problems" for the delay, while their Iranian counterparts insist that
the facility has essentially been completed and can start pumping
Iranian gas "at any moment."

Media speculation has linked the delay with the Armenian government’s
apparent plans to incorporate the pipeline into ARG national gas
distribution network, 58 percent of which is owned by Russia’s
state-run Gazprom monopoly. Critics say the facility would therefore
fail to serve its main purpose: to reduce Armenia’s energy dependence
on Russia.

Movsisian claimed that the government has not yet decided who will own
it. He said the decision will be taken only after the first pipeline
section comes on stream and undergoes technical tests that will take
"between three and six months."

But addressing the Armenian parliament later in the day, Movsisian
implied that the pipeline’s effective transfer under Russian control is
a forgone conclusion and denied that this would reflect negatively on
Armenia’s energy security. He assured lawmakers that "in one or two
years" Armenian gas imports from Iran will equal those from Russia
even if ARG becomes the owner of the newly built pipeline.