TEHRAN: Iran says it plans to increase its exports of natural gas to Armenia from the present volume of 1 million cubic meters per day (mcm/d) to 3 mcm/d within the next few years. Iran’s Petroleum Minister Bijan Zanganeh has been quoted by the media as saying that the rise will take place before 2019.
Zanganeh told reporters after a meeting with the visiting Armenian Minister of Energy and Natural Resources Levon Yolyan in Tehran that the planned increase in Iran’s gas exports to Armenia follows a request from Yerevan to the same effect.
He added that Iran has temporarily already increased exports to Armenia to 3.5 mcm/d. This, Zanganeh said, follows an announcement by the country that it has come across problems in a pipeline through which it imports gas from Russia and that it needs to fill the missing volumes through increased imports from Iran, IRNA reported. Exports will return to the normal level of 1 mcm/d within the next 40 days once the problems over the Russian pipeline are removed, added the Iranian minister.
Zanganeh further told reporters that Georgia has also sealed a basic agreement with Iran to import gas from Iran through Armenia. He said Iran plans to conduct a trial export of gas to Georgia through Armenia within the next few months. If the trial proves successful, Iran will finalize the agreement to export gas to Georgia, Iran’s petroleum minister added.
The transit of gas to Georgia through Armenia will be carried out through a new organization that will be established by Iran and Armenia, Zanganeh said. The same organization will be responsible for issues relating to Iran’s exports of gas to Armenia as well as the transit of gas to other regional markets through Armenia, he added.
