Armenia and Russia have not finalized agreement on reducing gas prices for Armenia

YEREVAN, April 29. / ARKA /. Armenia and Russia have not yet finalized an agreement on reducing natural gas price for Armenia, energy and natural resources minister Yervand Zakaryan told a parliamentary Q&A session today.

In an interview with Russian Rossiya-24 TV channel Gazprom chief Alexei Miller said the gas price for the Republic of Armenian, given its accession to the Eurasian Economic Union, will be lowered to $165 per thousand cubic meters from the current $190.

The minister could not say today whether the drop in the gas price will translate into lower price for households which pay now 156 drams per one cubic meter  and for corporate consumers that pay $270 per one thousand cubic meters. He said the Public Services Regulatory Commission (PSRC) will come out with an official statement after conducting a relating study.

According to media reports, Gazprom’s decision to cut the price for Armenia is to enable Gazprom-Armenia, Armenia’s national gas distribution network, to reverse losses it has incurred from last year’s 17 percent depreciation of the Armenian dram.

In 2013 Gazprom delivered 1.96 billion cubic meters of natural gas to Armenia, in 2014 the delivery rose to more than 2.06 billion cubic meters. Under an agreement Gazprom and Armenia signed in 2013 December, the Russian giant will be delivering up to 2.5 billion cubic meters of gas to Armenia every year until 2018. The gas price is to be determined by a formula linked to the Russian gas pricing scheme.-0-