Armenia Cedes Pipe Control

April 7, 2006

Moscow Times
By Mike Eckel
The Associated Press

Armenia agreed to give Gazprom control of part of an Armenian-Iranian natural gas pipeline and an electricity power-generating unit, the state-controlled gas giant said Thursday.

The deal gives Russia increased control over the poor Caucasus nation's energy infrastructure. The 25-year agreement also obliges Yerevan to give Gazprom's Armenian joint venture ownership rights to the yet-to-be-constructed, 197-kilometer stretch of the pipeline to Iran, as well as the right to export electricity produced at the Razdan-5 gas-fired power plant.

Armenia earlier had turned over control of its national gas transport system to a Russian-Armenian joint venture, ArmRosGaz, 55 percent of which is controlled by Gazprom and an affiliated company.
[...]
"If the Russians owned, let's say, just the distribution networks, and electric-energy generation was owned by different investors, this would be normal," said Ashot Aramyan, an energy analyst and editor of the business magazine Bazis.

"Here, the Russians have in their hands the entire cycle -- gas, electric generation and its distribution."
[...]

Note: Above are excerpts from the article. The full article appears here. Clarifications and comments by me are contained in {}. Deletions are marked by [...]. The bold emphasis is mine.