The Iranian official said that as part of the construction of a third electricity transmission line they also discuss the matter of increasing gas exports increase Armenia five times.

According to official statistics, at present Iran supplies Armenia with an average of about 1 million cubic meters a day in exchange for electricity. According to the Customs Service of Armenia, 383 million cubic meters of gas was imported to Armenia from Iran in 2014.

The agreement on the construction of the third power transmission line, which will make it possible to have a greater volume of Iranian gas imported to Armenia as part of the swap project, was signed in August 2015. Under the project that costs 107 million euros, a 275-km transmission line will be built within two years.

According to experts, after the lifting of international sanctions from Iran, export of gas has become one of the important issues on Iran’s foreign policy agenda, and in this respect Iran also seeks to establish cooperation with the Russian-led Eurasian Economic Union (EEU), of which Armenia is a member, as well as the Shanghai Cooperation Organization (SCO).

Because of the unstable situation in the region exports of gas via Turkey and Iraq are inexpedient and for Tehran today Armenia is one of the preferable ways. But the Russian factor is present here, and Iran and Russia are considered to be competitors in the economic sphere.

Iranian studies expert Armen Israelyan says that neither the Iranian-Armenian nor the Armenian-Russian agreements signed in the 1990s prevent gas exports to Armenia from Iran.

"The agreement signed between Armenia and Russia does not contradict the earlier agreement signed between Armenia and Iran. On the contrary, Armenian-Iranian cooperation in the gas for electricity format will be expanded over the next two years,” Israelyan told ArmeniaNow, reminding that recently Armenia, Iran, Georgia and Russia agreed to create an energy corridor linking the four countries.

According to the specialist, though Iran will not select only Armenia’s territory for establishing a link with Europe, it won’t build its economic relations with Azerbaijan at the expense of Armenia and vice versa. Israelyan considers relations with Russia to be positive also in this context.

"I think that it meets the interests of Russia, which is under sanctions, not to hinder the Armenian-Iranian economic cooperation, but using the format of the Eurasian Economic Union, through Armenia, to establish closer economic relations with Iran in order to weaken the influence of the West on the country,” he said.

However, the expert notes that after the lifting of sanctions, Russia is not among the first countries with which Iran has started to deepen relations.

After the elimination of the bulk of international sanctions against Iran, Armenia is also having high expectations for the development of its economic relations with its neighbor.

Last fall there were publications in the press suggesting that the issue of constructing a new Iran-Armenia gas pipeline with a higher capacity was under discussion, even though the current pipeline is being used at only 20-25 percent of its capacity.

But energy expert Vahe Davtyan, who heads the Clean Energy NGO, describes the talk about the matter as "political rhetoric”. "Even if this project is implemented, it will have a seasonal nature, it will not be a permanently exported gas,” he said, referring to the gas-electricity swap project.

 

(Armenia Now)