26 July 2016
Tehran - Minister of Petroleum Bijan Zangeneh said on Tuesday that Iran has signed up a miniature tentative deal with a Georgian purchaser for gas sale which is hoped to be in effect this year with the passage of Iranian gas through Armenian soil.

Speaking after a meeting with Armenian Minister of Energy and Natural Resources Levon Yolyan on Tuesday, Zangeneh said Iran's gas transit via Armenia was the most important topic in discussion in the meeting.

He said the Armenian party had come for talks on Iran's call for transit of gas to Georgia with a proposal for formation of a new organization.

He added that the minister discussed the idea with Iran and was welcomed. "The party to purchase gas from Iran, which has thus far been Yerevan thermal power plant, is changed and the contract for gas purchase of the power plant from Iran is transferred to a new organization."

He noted that through this organization, the upcoming direct gas sale agreements and gas transit to other regions from the country will be possible.

Calling gas exports "an advantage", he said Armenia has newly called for increasing gas purchase from Iran due to problems with the pipeline for gas receipt from Russia.

On an order by the First Vice-President Eshaq Jahangiri and on the call of Armenian Prime Minister Hovic Abrahamian, Iran has raised the amount of gas delivery to Armenia to 3.5 million cubic meters from one million cubic meters, Zangeneh said, adding that the pipeline will have problems for almost 40 days and it was a help Iran offered to Armenia as a neighbor, while it was not within framework of the contract.

The minister said expansion of relations with the neighbors in energy, especially gas exports, is among Iran's plans. "Of course, Armenia is not a major consumer but can open an important way for Iranian gas exports and in this field there has been agreement between the two sides."

On Armenia's call for increasing gas receipt from Iran, he said, "They have raised the call for increase in import of Iranian gas in the future and by late 2018, the amount of gas it will receive from Iran will increase to three million cubic meters a day from one million cubic meters."

To a question whether the ratio of Iran-Armenia power barter has changed, he said Iran used to receive three kilowatts of power from Armenia on border in exchange for one cubic meter of gas sale to the country and the amount has now risen to 3.2 kilowatts per hour of electricity.

Armenia started gas imports from Iran from mid 2009 and the two countries signed a gas and power barter deal in 2004 for a period of 20 years.

The capacity of the gas export pipeline is about 2.3 billion cubic meters annually and based on a deal between the two sides, Iranian exported gas will be consumed by electricity generation power plants and instead Iran will import electricity from Armenia.

© IRNA 2016