Gazprom to increase shipment of electricity to Iran in return for gas – Miller
Chief of Russian Gazprom Alexey Miller told reporters today that the company, which owns Armenia’s national gas distribution company Gazprom-Armenia, plans to ship electricity generated at the Hrazdan thermal power plant in Armenia to Iran in return for Iranian gas
"There is a serious potential for increasing the efficiency of our operations on the Armenian market by exchanging electricity produced at the fifth block of the Hrazdan thermal power plant for Iranian gas," Novosti-Armenia news agency reported, citing TASS.
According to him, the Armenian side will have built a high-voltage power line in 2018, which will allow to export electricity to the Iranian market through swap operations.
Miller also said that Gazprom has developed a master plan for the development of Armenia's gas industry until 2030. The document is submitted to the government of the republic, and the company expects that its discussion will begin this year.
The head of Gazprom also stressed that the company provides reliable gas supply to Armenia, despite the fact that it goes to this country through transit via Georgia.
Miller reminded that at present the Russian gas is sold to Armenia at $150 per thousand cubic meters.
"We held talks with the Government of the Republic of Armenia last December and considered it possible to preserve the preferential price level for 2017. At the same time, we also agreed that the Republic of Armenia will reduce the domestic tariff for consumers. That became possible, also because we reached a new agreement, " Miller said.
Today, Armenia receives about 370 million cubic meters of gas a year from Iran, which is converted into electricity and is shipped back to Iran. Earlier it was reported that Iran would triple its gas exports to Armenia by 2019 and will also sell gas to Georgia through Armenia. In particular, Tehran plans to increase natural gas exports to Armenia from 1 million cubic meters of gas per day to 3 million cubic meters. -- 0--