ARMENIAN VENTURE INTO IRANIAN GAS IN PIPELINE

Hurriyet
Dec 24 2008
Turkey

YEREVAN – Construction is to begin next year on a pipeline to deliver
petrol and diesel from Iran to Armenia, the Armenian Energy Minister
Armen Movsisian said Monday.

The 300 kilometer pipeline will run from the Iranian city of Tabriz
to the Armenian city of Eraskh, where a terminal is to be built,
Movsisian said at a press conference. "Armenia will receive petrol
and diesel fuel from the oil refinery located in the Iranian city of
Tabriz through the pipeline, construction of which starts next spring,"
he said.

Movsisian said the pipeline would take two years to complete and each
country would pay half the $200-240 million cost. He said the project
was part of efforts by Armenia to diversify its energy supplies, in
particular after the war in neighboring Georgia in August disrupted
Russian supplies to Armenia.

"In order to guarantee the country’s energy security we are moving
toward the diversification of energy supplies," he said.

Armenia and Iran last year inaugurated a 150-kilometer pipeline
intended to deliver 36 billion cubic meters of gas from Iran to Armenia
over 20 years. It has yet to start operations. Landlocked Armenia
suffers from an economic blockade imposed by neighbors Azerbaijan and
Turkey over the disputed Nagorno-Karabakh region and its efforts to
gain recognition of Ottoman-era mass killings of Armenians as genocide.