SECOND LINE ON IRAN-ARMENIA GAS PIPELINE MAY BE COMPLETED IN LATE 2008

Russia & CIS General Newswire
October 31, 2007 Wednesday 8:38 PM MSK

Construction of the second line of the Iran-Armenia gas pipeline
linking Kajaran and Yerevan may be completed by the end of 2008,
Armenian Energy Minister Armen Movsisyan said at a press conference
on Wednesday.

Of the pipeline’s 120-kilometer length, 60-65 kilometers have already
been completed, he said.

Work has halted due to the onset of poor weather and will resume next
year, he said.

The already completed 40-kilometer section linking Meghri and Kajaran
could deliver 350 million cubic meters to Armenia a year. With
construction of the second line capacity will rise to 2.3 billion
cubic meters, he said.

Iran is contracted to supply 1.1 billion cubic meters of gas a year
to Armenia from 2009 and 2.3 bcm a year from 2019. Armenia will
pay for the gas with deliveries of electricity at a rate of 3 kWh
of electricity per 1 cubic meter of gas. ArmRosGazprom is investing
about 52 billion dram (about $154 million) in the project, in line
with its investment program.