NO NEED FOR IRANIAN GAS YET, ARMENIAN ENERGY MINISTER SAYS

Arminfo
7 Sep 07

Yerevan, 7 September: Armenia has the technical capability to receive
Iranian gas today, too, but for the time being it does not need to
import Iranian gas, Armenian Energy Minister Armen Movsisyan told
journalists today. He was commenting on a recent statement that
Iranian gas supplies to Armenia will start on 22 September. The
statement was made by National Iranian Gas Export Company Managing
Director Nasrollah Seyfi.

The minister does not know why this date was chosen since there is no
any agreement with the Iranian side to this effect. The Iran-Armenia
gas pipeline has been built as an alternative to the operating
northern gas pipeline via which Armenia receives a sufficient amount
of natural gas from Russia, and the Iran-Armenia gas pipeline can for
the time being be put into operation only in case of a force majeure
situation. "I do not think that Armenia will suddenly experience the
need for additional gas supplies," Movsisyan said. He added that with
the Iran-Armenia gas pipeline’s Tabriz [in Iran]-Kajaran [in Armenia]
section having been built, the Armenian gas transport system has
joined the Iranian one. Work on this section, including testing,
has already been completed and it is fully ready to be used.

[Passage omitted: The minister said that the construction of the
second, Kajaran-Yerevan, section of the gas pipeline is under way.]

We should recall that under an investment project that has been
developed by the closed-type joint-stock company HayRusgazard
[Armenian-Russian gas], which is the general contractor in the
construction of the second section of the Iran-Armenia gas pipeline,
investment will total about 52bn drams, or 154m dollars at the current
[exchange] rate.