Iran in talks for gas supplies to Georgia via Armenia

PanARMENIAN.Net - Iran is in talks for gas supplies to Georgia via Armenia, IRNA cited the managing director of Iran's state-owned National Iranian Gas Exports Co. Alireza Kameli as saying.

Supplies could reach 300-500 million cubic feet per day, the main consumers being Georgian power plants. Prior to that, Iran signed an agreement on mutual gas supplies with Azerbaijan and an agreement on gas supplies to Armenia.

Georgia has been negotiating with Iran on possible imports of Iranian natural gas through neighboring Armenia, the head of the Islamic Republic’s national gas company said on January 4, RFE/RL.

“Based on our negotiations, we are supposed to transport gas to the Armenian border for Georgia to receive it on its own border with Armenia,” Iran’s IRNA news agency quoted Kameli as saying.

Kameli did not specify whether Tehran, Tbilisi and Yerevan have already reached an agreement and, if so, when the Iranian gas supplies will start. He only said that the gas deal must be “economical” for Georgia to start all the process.

Armenia imports up to 500 million cubic meters of Iranian gas annually through a pipeline that was launched in 2008. The pipeline’s maximum capacity is estimated at 2 billion cubic meters per annum.