EREVAN: Imports of Iranian natural gas to Armenia are expected to rise in 2017, Armenian deputy energy and natural resources minister Hayk Harutyunyan said today, adding that Armenia will also increase exports of electricity to Iran.
In August, Yerevan and Tehran signed an agreement on the construction of a third power transmission line between the two countries. The construction of the power line will take 18 months, he said. The cost of the project is about $120 million.
“The third power transmission line will allow Armenia and Iran to increase the amount of the Armenian-Iranian deal of gas for electricity,” Harutyunyan said, speaking to the RFE/RL’s Armenian service.
The deputy minister declined to name specific figures, saying only that the capacity of the Iran-Armenia gas pipeline is 2 billion cubic meters and it should be used as much as possible.
The gas pipeline between Armenia and Iran was commissioned in 2007. In return for Iranian gas Armenia ships electricity to Iran—3 kWh for one cubic meters of gas. In 2014 Armenia received 383 million cubic meters of Iranian gas at $189 for 1,000 cubic meters. The Iranian gas is not sold to households or enterprises; it is converted into electricity by the Yerevan thermal power plant and much of it is shipped back to Iran.
