Russia temporarily suspends gas supplies to Armenia

Gazprom Armenia company has announced that the transportation of natural gas from Russia to Armenia was temporarily suspended due to ongoing maintenance work in Georgia.

"From 10:00 [GMT+4] on November 13 to 22:00 on November 14, emergency repair work will be carried out on the Kazakh-Saguramo section [DN 1000] of the North Caucasus–Transcaucasia transit gas pipeline in Georgia. As a result, the supply of natural gas to Armenia will be temporarily suspended," the company stated, Caliber.Az reports, citing Russian media.

During the reporting period, Armenia will supply gas to consumers without restrictions by using internal reserves and additional volumes of natural gas from Iran.

Gazprom is the sole supplier of natural gas to Armenia, with the gas transport network operated by Gazprom Armenia, a 100 per cent subsidiary of the Russian giant. Since 2009, Armenia has been receiving gas from Iran, converting it into electricity and exporting it back to Iran at a rate of 3 kWh per 1 cubic metre of natural gas. 

Power plants involved in this programme produce 4-4.5 kWh of electricity from 1 cubic metre of Iranian natural gas, with the surplus remaining in Armenia. The natural gas, which is supplied from Iran is used exclusively within the "Gas for Electricity" programme, which is set to run until 2030.

By Naila Huseynova