Gazprom Armenia (; ), formerly known as ArmRosGazprom (; ), is a subsidiary of the Russian

Gazprom PJSC Gazprom ( rus, Газпром, , ɡɐsˈprom) is a Russian State-owned enterprise, majority state-owned multinational Energy industry, energy corporation headquartered in the Lakhta Center in Saint Petersburg. The Gazprom name is a contract ...

company in

Armenia Armenia, officially the Republic of Armenia, is a landlocked country in the Armenian Highlands of West Asia. It is a part of the Caucasus region and is bordered by Turkey to the west, Georgia (country), Georgia to the north and Azerbaijan to ...

. It was founded in 1997 as a joint Russian-Armenian

natural gas Natural gas (also fossil gas, methane gas, and gas) is a naturally occurring compound of gaseous hydrocarbons, primarily methane (95%), small amounts of higher alkanes, and traces of carbon dioxide and nitrogen, hydrogen sulfide and helium ...

pipeline A pipeline is a system of Pipe (fluid conveyance), pipes for long-distance transportation of a liquid or gas, typically to a market area for consumption. The latest data from 2014 gives a total of slightly less than of pipeline in 120 countries ...

project. When it was founded, the Russian state gas monopolist

owned 45% of stock, the Energy Ministry of Armenia 45% and the ITERA company 10%. In 2014, Gazprom became the sole owner of the company and renamed it Gazprom Armenia. The Director General of the company is Vardan Harutyunyan. The company operates the gas supply for Armenia's domestic gas market and also produces

power generation Electricity generation is the process of generating electric power from sources of primary energy. For utilities in the electric power industry, it is the stage prior to its delivery ( transmission, distribution, etc.) to end users or its stora ...

History

In April 2006,

and

signed a contract for 25 years about strategic principles of cooperation in gas and energy projects in the Armenian territory. After this contract Gazprom raised the gas price from the preferential $54 per 1,000 m³ to $110 per 1,000 m³. The price is fixed on this still preferential level until 1 January 2009. To avoid a higher prizes level for natural gas, the Armenian government had to make some concessions that the Iran-Armenia Natural Gas Pipeline and the 5th unit of the Hrazdan Thermal Power Station get under control of ARG. Final owner rights must transit till 1 January 2007. As part of the contract,

Russia Russia, or the Russian Federation, is a country spanning Eastern Europe and North Asia. It is the list of countries and dependencies by area, largest country in the world, and extends across Time in Russia, eleven time zones, sharing Borders ...

wanted to limit the diameter of the Iran-Armenia Natural Gas Pipeline to 700 mm to prevent the use of the pipeline to transport bigger amounts of gas to other countries like

Georgia Georgia most commonly refers to: * Georgia (country), a country in the South Caucasus * Georgia (U.S. state), a state in the southeastern United States Georgia may also refer to: People and fictional characters * Georgia (name), a list of pe ...

. However, the pipeline was built with the diameter of 1,200 mm. The Hrazdan Thermal Power Stations is the biggest power station of the Armenian energy complex. The incomplete but modern 5th unit should be completed and equipped with gas turbine engine up to 140 MWt. During a visit to

Moscow Moscow is the Capital city, capital and List of cities and towns in Russia by population, largest city of Russia, standing on the Moskva (river), Moskva River in Central Russia. It has a population estimated at over 13 million residents with ...

at the end of October 2006, Armenia's President

Robert Kocharyan Robert Sedraki Kocharyan ( ; born 31 August 1954) is an Armenian politician. He served as the President of the Nagorno-Karabakh Republic from 1994 to 1997 and Prime Minister of Nagorno-Karabakh from 1992 to 1994. He served as the second Presiden ...

announced, that Gazprom will buy additional ARG-shares and then controls 58% of the companies equity capital. On 27 October 2006 Gazprom's Executive Board approved acquire additional issues of ARG, which is most likely part of April's controversial deal. According to

Karen Karapetyan Karen Vilhelmi Karapetyan (; born 14 August 1963) is an Armenian politician who was Prime Minister of Armenia from September 2016 until April 2018. He was previously Mayor of Yerevan, the capital, from 2010 to 2011. He was appointed prime ministe ...

, Gazprom will pay $118.8 million to have the commanding share of ARG. In January 2014, Gazprom agreed to purchase another 20% of ARG bringing Gazprom's ownership to 100% of the company. The company was renamed Gazprom Armenia. The agreed was signed by Chairman

Alexey Miller Alexey Borisovich Miller (; born 31 January 1962) is a Russian businessman. Miller is the Deputy Chairman of the Board of Directors and the Chairman of the Management Committee (CEO) of Russian energy company Gazprom, Russia's largest state-own ...

(

) and Armenian Minister of Energy and Natural Resources Armen Movsisyan.

Criticism

Since Armenia fully depends on gas imports from Russia via Georgia, the Iran-Armenia Natural Gas Pipeline was intended to decrease dependency on Russia. The 1.1 bcm of gas per year had given Armenia a considerable bargaining power against Gazprom. Critics now say that placing the pipeline under Russian control would only deepen that dependence and that the agreement could be seen as a big geopolitical victory of Russia in the

South Caucasus The South Caucasus, also known as Transcaucasia or the Transcaucasus, is a geographical region on the border of Eastern Europe and West Asia, straddling the southern Caucasus Mountains. The South Caucasus roughly corresponds to modern Armenia, ...

region.

Directors

* Roland Adonts (1997-2001) *

(2001-2010) * Vardan Harutyunyan (2010-2016)

References

{{reflist

External links

Official website
Oil and gas companies of Armenia Natural gas pipeline companies Gazprom subsidiaries

History

Criticism

Directors

See also

References

External links