ARMROSGASPROM CEO POINTS OUT ARMENIA’S PROGRESS IN ENERGY SECURITY

ARKA
Jan 20, 2009

YEREVAN, January 20. /ARKA/. Armenia has made essential progress
in its energy security, Karen Karapetyan, Chief Executive Officer,
ArmRosgasprom Company, stated at an international gas conference
in Moscow.

Speaking of uninterrupted gas supply and Armenia’s energy security,
Karapetyan pointed out a number of acute problems, the ArmRosgasprom
press service reports.

"However, I can say that the gas supply has regularly been interrupted
in the country in wintertime over the last five years, which has not
affected the users at all," Karapetyan said.

According to him, the Armenian gas users would not have even felt
the January gas-supply interruptions but for the mass media.

"The real state of affairs is that Armenia has a much higher energy
security level than many of the European states with the imports of
energy resources seeming to be more diversified there than in Armenia,"
Karapetyan said.

He said that the conference asked suggestive questions, and the way
Armenia has chosen to resolve the energy security problems is an
effective one.

"This is another testimony that we are following the right way,
taking timely measures," Karapetyan said.

The Moscow gas conference demonstrated the necessity for revising
both the current mechanisms of power supply and energy security and
the relevant laws.

0A The ArmRosgasprom holds a monopoly of distribution of the Russian
natural gas in Armenia.

The company was founded in 1997. The Gazprom OJSC and the RA Ministry
of Energy hold 45% of the company’s stock each, with 10% held by the
Itera Company. Under two of the three phases of the investment stage,
after Gazprom purchased additional shares of the ArmRosgasprom CJSC,
in 2006 and 2008, its share in ArmRosgasprom’s authorized capital
reached 75.55%.

The RA Government’s share is 20%, and that of Itera 4.44.