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Iranian Company to Continue Construction of Gas Pipeline to Armenia

Posted on: Tuesday, 13 September 2005, 09:00 CDT

Excerpt from report by Armenian news agency Arminfo

Yerevan, 12 September: The Armenian government has approved the company that will continue the construction of the second section of the Iran-Armenia gas pipeline. It is the Iranian company Sanir, Armenian Energy Minister Armen Movsisyan has told our Arminfo correspondent.

Meanwhile, the Iranian company MAP will finish the fifth energy unit of the Razdan thermal power plant.

Thus, the government has in fact denied the Russian energy holdings - the Unified Energy Systems of Russia and the Gazprom open- type joint-stock company - the opportunity to set up a consortium for completing the fifth energy unit of the Razdan thermal power plant with the Iran-Armenia gas pipeline connected to it.

The Russian companies are concerned that the pipeline might be used for the transit of Iranian gas to Europe. The Russian companies were ready to invest 250m dollars in the implementation of this project.

As for the first section of the gas pipeline, its construction is continuing at a high pace. The Armenian government had earlier approved the route of its construction from Megri to Kadzharan. The length of this section of the gas pipeline is 40 km and it occupies 132 hectares. The government adopted a decision to carry out construction work to lay pipes.

Ministries, departments and the authorities of the towns and villages where the pipeline will pass were instructed to investigate the route within a month and present the government with their remarks and proposals on changing it and paying compensation to land owners for possible damage. An instruction was also issued to consider this project in terms of environmental safety.

[Passage omitted: Details of the project]

Source: BBC Monitoring Central Asia

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