The construction of a gas pipeline that would transit Iranian gas to the former Soviet republic of Armenia will begin this year, Armenian Energy Minister Karen Galustyan said Wednesday.
The 140-kilometre (48-mile) pipeline should cost some $138 million and should be completed within months, Galustyan said.
Armenia will begin the construction by building a section of the pipeline between its southern towns of Megri and Kadzharan, a project worth some $26 million. The exact price for Iranian gas supplies was not yet determined, the minister said.
An international consortium -- including Russia's gas giant Gazprom, France's Gas de France, Iran's National Gas Company and Armenia's energy ministry -- will be created for the building of the pipeline.Iran has the world's second largest reserves of natural gas after Russia.—AFP.
©--Agence France Presse 2001.
© 2001 Mena Report (www.menareport.com)
