Oil Products Depot In Armenia on Agenda

18.06.2011 | 18:41 | | Noyan Tapan | Economy

(Noyan Tapan – 18.06.2011) 18 Jun 2011

Managing director of the National Iranian Oil Refining and
Distribution Company NIORDC) on Friday outlined the outcome of talks
with Armenia on exporting oil products and said a new center for
storing oil products will be set up near Yerevan.

“At present, Armenia’s market has an average demand for 12,000 barrels
of oil products daily. It is predicted this figure will increase to
22,000 barrels per day,” added Jalil Salari, who was speaking to Mehr
News Agency.

Studies have been conducted in recent years by Iran and Russia’s
Gazprom Company on building an oil refinery in Armenia, he said.

“Since oil refineries with capacities of less than 100,000 barrels of
oil are not economically feasible, the construction of this refining
unit has been cancelled,” he noted.

The official said at present Iran and Armenia are holding talks on
building a pipeline to conduit oil products. “In addition to building
this pipeline, studies are also planned on building a new warehouse
for distributing oil products near Yerevan.

Upon construction of this oil warehouse and its connection to the
railroad network, not only will the liquid gas needed by Armenia be
procured but it will also facilitate the export of oil products to
Georgia and other countries in Central Asia and the Caucasus region,”
he noted.

Salari pointed to Iranian private sector’s cooperation with Armenia on
constructing a joint oil pipeline. “Preliminary studies reveal that
laying an eight-inch to 12-inch pipeline for exporting fuel is
economically justified in the long run. Launching a new energy hub
near Yerevan for export and supply of oil products also has economic
advantages for Iran.”

He recalled currently some Iranian oil products are exported to
Armenia by tankers using the overland route.

“Armenia has 26 km of land borders with Iran. For a few years now swap
of electricity and natural gas with this neighboring country has
started. Once the final agreement is reached between the two
countries, it will become possible to export oil products to Armenia,
other regional countries and even the Mediterranean region in the long
run,” noted Salari.

Iran Daily 2011