AHMADINEJAD OPENS IRANIAN GAS PIPELINE TO ARMENIA
Agence France Presse — English
March 19, 2007 Monday 2:30 PM GMT
Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad and his Armenian counterpart
inaugurated on Monday a natural gas pipeline reducing energy-strapped
Armenia’s reliance on Russian gas.
Ahmadinejad and Armenian President Robert Kocharian formally opened
the pipeline in the Armenian town of Agarak, near the border with Iran.
"This is a historic event that opens a new period in the relations
of Iran and Armenia," Kocharian said at the ceremony.
Surrounded by local villagers, the two presidents lit a symbolic
torch at the ceremony, which was delayed for hours after heavy
fog prevented Ahmadinejad’s helicopter from flying to the area. He
eventually arrived by car.
"Our relations have deepened over the last 15 years and it is my
intention to develop them further," Ahmadinejad said during the
ceremony.
He said he hoped to increase cross-border cooperation in a range of
fields, including electricity, energy, water and telecoms.
Under a 20-year contract, Armenia is projected to receive 36 billion
cubic metres of gas through the 150-kilometre (93-mile) pipeline,
breaking Russian gas giant Gazprom’s stranglehold on the ex-Soviet
country’s gas market.
Armenia is initially to receive up to 400 million cubic metres of
gas per year through the pipeline, but that amount is expected to
eventually increase to 2.3 billion cubic metres per year.
An agreement to build the 200-million-dollar (150-million-euro)
pipeline was signed in 1992 but construction only began in 2004.
Armenia funded its share of the pipeline with a 33-million-dollar
loan from the Iranian Export and Development Bank.
Armenia will pay for the gas with electricity it produces at a
Soviet-era nuclear power plant.
Landlocked Armenia has sought closer links with Iran because of an
economic blockade imposed by neighbours Azerbaijan and Turkey over
the disputed Nagorno-Karabakh region.
Armenia and Azerbaijan fought a six-year war ending with an uneasy
ceasefire in 1994 over the majority ethnic-Armenian enclave in
Azerbaijan.