According to Mr. Garibdzhanyan, the pipeline's Iranian leg, a hundred kilometers long, will be commissioned next spring. The construction of the forty-kilometer Armenian leg will cost an estimated $120 million, the ambassador is quoted as saying. Several companies bid for the contract, but it was eventually awarded to an Iranian bidder, he said, but stopped short of identifying the contractor. He revealed only that its chief executive had visited Armenia several days ago to discuss the project's particulars.
The supply of Iranian natural gas to Armenia will begin ahead of schedule, in early 2007, Mr. Garibdzhanyan said. This next September, Iranian President Mohammad Khatami is due in Armenia for an official visit, during which an agreement will likely be signed for the construction of a Kajaran tunnel, on the Armenian-Iranian border, and also probably of a hydro-electric power plant on the Araks River, the ambassador announced.
The contract for the construction of the Iran-Armenia gas pipeline was signed in the Armenian capital of Yerevan on May 13. It envisages the supply of 36 billion cubic meters of Iranian natural gas over a period of twenty years. The project is to be commissioned by the end of 2006.
On Monday, July 19, Alexander Ryazanov, Deputy Chair of the Russian gas giant Gazprom, told a press conference in Yerevan that according to Gazprom experts' estimates, the construction of the Armenian section, from Megri to Kajaran, would cost some $140 million and that the pipeline would take nine years to pay off. Ryazanov did not rule out the possibility of his company investing in the project.
