NAIRIT PLANT MAY BECOME LARGEST CONSUMER OF OIL REFINERY IN MEGHRI

ARMINFO News Agency
February 14, 2007 Wednesday

The Nairit chemical plant of Yerevan may become the largest consumer
of an oil refinery which is to be built in Meghri, Syunik region of
Armenia, under the Armenian-Russian agreement, Radik Martirosyan,
the President of the Armenian National Academy of Sciences, said in
his answer to an ArmInfo correspondent’s question.

According to R.Martirosyan, in case this project is implemented,
Armenia’s chemical sphere will develop faster. All the institutions
of the chemical sector will get an opportunity to work with a new
oil refinery, he emphasized.

To note, Viktor Soghomonyan, the press-secretary of the Armenian
President, has recently announced about the project of construction
of the oil refinery in Meghri. Particularly, he noted that a lot of
work has still to be done at the project. According to V.Soghomonyan,
the Armenian, Russian and Iranian sides will hold negotiations on
the project of construction and get agreement upon using the oil. All
the issues will be addressed in the final version of the project.

To remind, according to Russian sources, the Gazprom Neft company
intends to build an oil refinery in Armenia and the Iran-Armenia
oil pipeline. The oil refinery’s capacity will be 7 mln tons of oil
per year. The total value of the project is $1.7 bln, infrastructure
exclusive. $1 bln will be spent on the infrastructure.