ARMENIA TO START RECEIVING IRANIAN GAS: MINISTRY
Agence France Presse
May 12 2009
Armenia will start receiving natural gas from neighbouring Iran this
week under a plan to diversify the landlocked ex-Soviet republic’s
energy supplies, the energy ministry said Tuesday.
Ministry spokeswoman Lusine Harutunian said Armenia will start
receiving the gas on Wednesday and that it will be used in the
production of electricity which will then be exported back to Iran.
There are no plans as yet to use the gas for Armenia’s domestic
consumption, she said.
"The volume of Iranian gas will depend on demand from Iran for electric
power," she said.
Armenia and Iran signed the "gas for electricity" deal in 2002 and
in 2007 inaugurated a 150-kilometre (93-mile) pipeline for the gas
deliveries.
Armenia has been cultivating close energy links with Iran because
of an economic blockade imposed by neighbours Azerbaijan and Turkey
in retaliation for Yerevan’s role in the conflict over the disputed
Nagorny Karabakh region.
The country has also sought to reduce its traditional dependence on
Russian energy, in particular after last year’s war in neighbouring
Georgia disrupted Russian gas supplies to Armenia.