Announcement

Collapse
No announcement yet.

Yerevan Hints At Iran Pipeline Delay

Collapse
X
 
  • Filter
  • Time
  • Show
Clear All
new posts

  • Yerevan Hints At Iran Pipeline Delay

    YEREVAN HINTS AT IRAN PIPELINE DELAY
    By Karine Kalantarian

    Radio Liberty, Czech Rep.
    Dec 14 2006

    The Armenian government on Thursday stopped short of explicitly denying
    reports that the ongoing work on a major natural gas pipeline from
    Iran will not be complete, as planned, by the end of this month.

    Energy Minister Armen Movsisian said last month that the first
    41-kilometer section of the pipeline passing through south-eastern
    Armenia will be inaugurated on December 20. His deputy Ara Simonian
    also spoke of a late December deadline for finishing the Iranian-funded
    construction.

    But citing unnamed government sources, the Yerevan daily "Haykakan
    Zhamanak" reported on Thursday that the pipeline will not come on
    stream before next summer.

    "The construction of the Iran-Armenia pipeline is proceeding according
    to plan, and everything will be done to complete it on time,"
    Lusine Harutiunian, a spokeswoman for the Armenian Energy Ministry
    told RFE/RL.

    "We have said that it will be complete before the end of the year.

    Now everything is being done to meet that deadline," she said.

    But Harutiunian added that this will happen only "if the weather does
    not create surprises." "We can't tell you a concrete day at this point
    because it is now winter and working in such climate conditions is
    not easy," she said without elaborating.

    The under-construction pipeline was supposed to diversify the
    landlocked country's energy resources that mainly come from Russia
    at present. But it is now widely expected to be incorporated into
    a Russian-controlled company that owns Armenia's gas distribution
    network. The takeover would be part of a controversial deal that
    enabled Armenia to temporarily avoid a steep rise in the price of
    Russian gas in return for hading over more energy assets to Gazprom
    Russia's state-run gas monopoly.
Working...
X