Armenia's government is keen to significantly increase imports of natural gas from neighboring Iran, Minister of Territorial Administration and Infrastructures Davit Khudatian confirmed on Tuesday after a weekend visit to Tehran.
Khudatian insisted that this is not a consequence of Russia’s threats to hike the price of its natural gas supplied to Armenia.
“This is a decision that has nothing to do with another country and the Russian Federation in particular,” he told RFE/RL’s Armenian Service.
Khudatian discussed the issue with Iran’s Vice President Hamid Pourmohammadi and Oil Minister Mohsen Paknejad.
The two sides agreed to set up a “joint specialized task force” that will look into practical modalities of deepening Armenian-Iranian energy ties.
Khudatian said they also agreed in principle to expand a long-running swap arrangement whereby Armenia supplies electricity to Iran in payment for Iranian gas imported by it.
“We both noted that Armenia needs to receive a larger amount of gas while Iran needs to receive a larger amount of electricity,” he said.
Armenia imported less than 500 million cubic meters of Iranian gas last year in addition to around 2 billion cubic meters of Russian gas supplied via Georgia.
According to Ara Marjanian, an Armenian energy expert, the Iranian gas is currently twice as expensive for Armenia as the Russian gas.
The Russian gas price for Armenia has long been set well below international market levels.
