"ECHO": REGIONAL "GAS WAR" STARTED

PanARMENIAN.Net
20.03.2007 14:48 GMT+04:00

/PanARMENIAN.Net/ Iran-Armenia gas pipeline (IA) was put in commission
March 19 and Baku-Tbilisi-Erzerum (BTE) gas pipeline will be launched
March 25. Still during construction works of BTE analysts underlined
that the pipeline, which stretches from Azeri "Shahdeniz" main filed,
can serve as an additional and alternative way to Russian supplies
and a reliable channel of supplying the Old World with natural gas.

Azeri newspaper "Echo" reports that completion of IA pipeline also
aroused a number of discussions.

According to analysts, Iran that has vast resources of gas would
hardly participate in financing of such an expensive project
like construction of the pipeline, only to supply Armenia with
"blue fuel". Analysts say, it is not excluded that Iran wants to
use IA pipeline for entering transporting channels of Georgia and
then to the European market. According to other estimations, Iran,
which can fully use BTE pipeline for these purposes, is already an
all-sufficient country, and it is unlikely that the Islamic Republic
plans to deliver gas resources to Europe. In any case a real "gas war"
starts for supplying Europe with gas resources, say Azeri analysts.