RUSSIAN ACADEMICIAN: LONG-TERM OIL STORAGE MORE ADVANTAGEOUS FOR ARMENIA THAN SEARCH FOR OIL

ARKA
Apr 24, 2009

YEREVAN, April 24. /ARKA/. It is more advantageous for Armenia to
have a long-term oil storage than to search for oil on its territory,
former USSR Minister of Geology, President of Geoservice consulting
company academician of the Russian Academy of Natural Sciences Grigory
Gabrieliants said.

"It is more advantageous for Armenia to have an oil storage for
long-term storage, purchase oil in-between the seasons when the
prices are lower. If we manage to follow correct policy, it would
provide positive results. That is why I refrain from recommending
making large expenditures for search of oil for the time being, and I
believe that global economic developments should be taken into account
when making cost calculations", Gabrieliants told a press conference
in Yerevan Thursday.

According to the academician, the search of oil is a burning issue
in Armenia and the search process itself is a long-term process.

According to his information, potential resource of hydrocarbons in
Armenia is 100mln tons of conditional fuel – oil, gas, bitumen or
other sorts of hydrocarbons.

"But the problem is that Armenian territory within its boundaries
has a complicated geological structure. The fate of the Armenian
people is like the structure of the Armenian land, and all cataclysms
experienced by the Armenian people can be seen also in the structure
of Earth crust, and on the surface where there are many major boulders,
stones, fractures and earthquake traces," Gabrieliants said.

This kind of structure makes it very difficult to search for oil,
he said.

He stressed the necessity to evaluate cost-effectiveness of creating
oil storage, searching for oil or alternate energy resources in
Armenia.

According to the ex-minister, search and development of alternate
energy sources is more promising in terms of scientific development.

The world processes should be taken into account while talking about
appropriateness of search for oil in Armenia, Gabrieliants said.

150bln tons of oil has been extracted from Earth interior so far with
160bln tons remaining; annual oil consumption is 4.7bln tons in the
world. In 2020 the consumption is expected to reach 5.5bln tons of
oil every year, Gabrieliants said.

Only when all these criteria are taken account, it would be possible
to establish cost-effectiveness of oil search in Armenia and see if
its cost is lower than in the world, the academician said.

Gabrieliants also said that over 80 kinds of mineral resources were
found in Nagorno-Karabakh Republic, metallic ores, gold, mercury,
lead, zinc, raw materials for cement and brick among them.