Armenia Ready to Discuss Possibility of Boosting Gas Imports from Iran

Armenia will discuss the possibility of substantially boosting gas imports from Iran, country’s Energy and Natural Resources Minister Armen Movsisian said Wednesday, reports Radio Free Europe’s (RFE) Armenian service.

Movsisian told RFE that the Armenian government is ready to purchase up to 2 billion cubic meters of Iranian gas each year. Currently almost all of Armenian gas demand is met by gas imports from Russia.

Armenia has imported around 500 million cubic meters of Iranian gas per annum until now.

The issue may come up during the next session of an Armenian-Iranian intergovernmental commission on economic cooperation due in May, RFE reports.

The news report says that minister’s revelation comes as a surprise given the fact that the Armenian government completed a highly controversial deal with Gazprom as recently as in January.

The government ceded its remaining 20 percent stake in Armenia’s gas distribution network to Gazprom and granted it 30-year exclusive rights in the domestic energy market. In return, the Russian energy conglomerate wrote off a $300 million debt incurred by the government as a consequence of secretly subsidizing the Russian gas price for Armenia from 2011-2013.

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