ARMENIA, IRAN, RUSSIA TO OPEN TALKS ON OIL REFINERY
By Emil Danielyan
Radio Liberty, Czech Rep.
April 17 2007
Government officials from Armenia, Iran and Russia will meet soon
to discuss an ambitious idea to build a big oil refinery on the
Armenian-Iranian border that would cater for the Iranian market.
President Robert Kocharian reportedly discussed the multimillion-dollar
project with senior Russian officials during a visit to Moscow in
January. A subsidiary of Russia’s state-run Gazprom gas monopoly
said afterwards that it is considering investing an estimated $1.7
billion needed for the construction of the would-be refinery near
the Armenian border town of Meghri.
Reports in the Russian press have said the facility would have an
annual capacity to refine up to 7 million tons of Iranian oil that
would be pumped into Armenia through a special pipeline to be built in
northwestern Iran. Petrol produced by it would then be shipped back
to Iran by rail. Construction of the 200-kilometer pipeline and the
railway would require hundreds of millions of dollars in additional
funding. Armenia and Iran have no rail links at present.
The Russian Regnum news agency quoted Armenia’s Deputy Energy Minister
Areg Galstian as saying that officials from the three governments
will try to "ascertain the scale of each party’s participation in
the project." Galstian did not give further details of the talks.
Despite its vast oil reserves, Iran lacks refining capacities and
has to import gasoline to meet domestic demand. Nonetheless, some
Russian experts have questioned the economic wisdom of the project,
arguing that oil refineries are usually located near sea ports or
major oil pipelines. They see political motives behind the idea of
building such a facility in landlocked Armenia.