In September, a series of official statements were made in Armenia regarding the diversification of energy imports—primarily natural gas, reports Nezavisimaya Gazeta.
\nCurrently, the sole gas supplier on Armenia’s domestic market is Gazprom Armenia CJSC, a wholly-owned subsidiary of Russia’s Gazprom. This same company manages the republic’s gas transmission network. While Iran could theoretically increase supplies, it lacks the incentive to do so and—during the winter—lacks the spare capacity.<\/p>\n
As the publication notes, Russia’s Gazprom currently dominates the Armenian market entirely. While this arrangement previously suited both sides, Yerevan now desires to have a choice. But is there actually a choice?<\/p>\n
There are only two alternative suppliers, yet neither is eager to compete with Moscow.<\/p>\n
Turkmenistan\/ Kazakhstan represent a dead-end option for now: pipelines would need to be laid across the Caspian Sea, a move requiring Russian and Iranian consent regarding the sea’s legal status, as well as massive, risky, long-term investments.<\/p>\n
Azerbaijan has expressed a “theoretical” willingness to supply gas to Armenia, but this would require constructing a pipeline (approximately 240 km) as part of the TRIPP project, running through southern Armenia to Nakhichevan and on to Turkey. While technically feasible, the project would be slow to implement and remains uncertain. The TRIPP project prioritizes roads, railways, power transmission lines, and fiber-optic networks—areas where Baku has a vested interest and is already carrying out its share of the work.
\nBaku, however, shows little interest in a gas pipeline running through Armenia. Furthermore, how could one compete with Gazprom, whose preferential pricing is currently more than five times lower than European rates?<\/p>\n
One of Yerevan’s hopes lies in increasing nuclear power generation while reducing reliance on gas. Currently, the Metsamor NPP—the only nuclear power plant in the South Caucasus—accounts for up to 40% of Armenia’s electricity generation. Rosatom is working to extend the plant’s service life until 2036. However, the European Union is demanding the plant’s closure and its replacement with new generating capacity.
\n“The Armenian government is supposed to select a technology for a new nuclear power plant by the end of 2027; otherwise, the deadline for commencing construction will be missed. A proposal from Rosatom has long been on the table. The only alternative proposal backed by funding comes from the US, but it appears to be a pipe dream—or perhaps even a technological sham.
\nArmenia currently has no viable, practical alternatives to Russian gas and Russian involvement in its nuclear energy sector. And Nikol Pashinyan’s government will have to reckon with this reality regardless,” the publication writes.<\/p>\n<\/body><\/html>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
In September, a series of official statements were made in Armenia regarding the diversification of energy imports—primarily natural gas, reports Nezavisimaya Gazeta. Currently, the sole gas supplier on Armenia’s domestic market is Gazprom Armenia CJSC, a wholly-owned subsidiary of Russia’s Gazprom. This same company manages the republic’s gas transmission network. While Iran could theoretically increase […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":4,"featured_media":299657,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"inline_featured_image":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[2,35,43,47,101],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-299689","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-news","category-politics","category-world","category-society","category-economy"],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/abcmedia.am\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/299689","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/abcmedia.am\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/abcmedia.am\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/abcmedia.am\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/4"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/abcmedia.am\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=299689"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/abcmedia.am\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/299689\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":299690,"href":"https:\/\/abcmedia.am\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/299689\/revisions\/299690"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/abcmedia.am\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/299657"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/abcmedia.am\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=299689"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/abcmedia.am\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=299689"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/abcmedia.am\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=299689"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}