The Prime Minister of Armenia Nikol Pashinyan stated that at a meeting with Russian President Vladimir Putin on September 8 the sides agreed to study the entire pricing mechanism for natural gas supplied to the country.
“I presented the situation to the President of Russia and said that not Armenia, but the company Gazprom Armenia, is getting gas for $ 150. We agreed that we will study the entire pricing mechanism and its contractual basis,” Pashinyan told local journalists on Sunday.
According to him, the information about the fact that the price of gas in Armenia, where the bulk of consumers pay $ 286 per 1,000 cubic meters, is one of the highest in the CIS was new for Putin.
“He was surprised and said he personally instructed that cheap gas be supplied to Armenia, so that it would be affordable for the citizens. I said that unfortunately this decision did not serve its purpose.” We agreed that we will study the issue in order to understand what refinements can be made there,” Pashinyan noted.
In 2016, Gazprom CEO Alexei Miller and Gazprom Armenia Director General Vardan Harutyunyan signed an addition to the contract for the supply of natural gas to Armenia in 2014-2018. Since April 2016, Russia has reduced the price of natural gas supplied to the republic from $ 165 to $ 150 per 1,000 cubic meters.
Previously, Pashinyan did not exclude that in the scheme of deliveries of Russian gas to the consumers of Armenia there are corruption risks.
“The citizens of Armenia do not feel that they are getting cheap gas from Russia today because of ineffective management, including corruption risks. I think the Russian authorities will understand it, if we begin to seriously study this issue,” Pashinyan said in the parliament, answering the questions of MPs after the presentation of the program of the new government.
* CJSC Gazprom Armenia, 100% subsidiary of PJSC Gazprom, is the only supplier of natural gas in the domestic market of the republic.
Since January 1, 2017, the tariff for natural gas for the population and economic entities of Armenia has been reduced. For consumers using up to 10 thousand cubic meters of gas per month, the tariff is 139 thousand drams (about $ 286 at the current rate) per 1 thousand cubic meters. For consumers using more than 10 thousand cubic meters per month, there is a tariff equivalent to $ 242.
For socially disadvantaged families, the tariff is 100 thousand drams ($ 206) per 1 thousand cubic meters for a volume of up to 600 cubic meters per year, and for a volume of more than 600 cubic meters per year it is 139 thousand drams ($ 286) per 1,000 cubic meters.
