YEREVAN, Armenia — Armenia’s energy minister denied Friday that the impoverished Caucasus nation had struck a deal with Russia’s state-run gas monopoly to hand it control of part of a new Armenian-Iranian gas pipeline.
Gazprom a day earlier announced that it had struck a 25-year-deal giving Gazprom’s Armenian joint venture ownership rights to the Armenian segment of a planned pipeline bringing Iranian gas to the country and an electricity power generating unit.
Armenian Energy Minister Armen Movsisian, said that the pipeline was still under construction and therefore “it cannot be sold.” He insisted that Armenia had only agreed to transfer control of the country’s Razdan-5 gas-fired power plant for almost $250 million.
The deal was expected to draw fire from Armenia’s opposition, which has expressed concern over Russia’s already heavy control over the small, landlocked country’s energy infrastructure.
But Movsisian said the proceeds from the deal — which will give Gazprom the right to export electricity from the power plant unit — were needed to soften the effect for the population of a doubling in the price of Russian natural gas supplies.
The agreement sets a price for Armenia of $110 per thousand cubic meters of gas up to Jan. 1, 2009, according to a Gazprom statement — roughly twice what Armenia has paid in recent years.
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