Hamid Reza Araqi, who is also the managing director of National Iranian Gas Company (NIGC), added, “in addition to the conclusion of a gas and electricity barter contract inked between Iran and Armenia, Tehran is also ready to expand gas cooperation with Yerevan.”
Turning to Iran’s gas export to Armenia, he said, “a predefined contract has been inked between Iran and Armenia for exporting gas to Armenia and also importing electricity into the country.”
Accordingly, Armenia has promised to import three KW/hour electricity into Iran in exchange for one million cubic meter gas exported from Iran to Armenia, the deputy oil minister maintained.
Turning to the possibility of increased volume of Iran’s gas export to Armenia, he said, “Iran has not any problem to increase its export volume of gas to Armenia but the Armenian side is unable to supply more electricity to Iran.”
However, it has been stipulated to organize a get-together meeting between Iran and Armenia for increasing gas export volume, he said, adding, “both public and private sectors of Armenia can negotiate with Iran for importing more gas volume from Iran to Armenia.”
Accordingly, the Ministry of Oil has prioritized to export gas to neighboring states and also export of liquefied natural gas (LNG) to other target markets at the next phase, he maintained.
In 2004, Iran and Armenia inked a barter contract in the field of gas and electricity for 20 years, based on which, Iran’s export gas will be used by Armenian power plants and in return, Iran will import electricity from Armenia, NIOC managing director concluded.
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