Iranian, Armenian presidents hold talks

March 19, 2007
IRNA

Following the official inauguration of the Iran-Armenia gas pipeline at the Armenian town of Meghri, President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad and his Armenian counterpart, Robert Kocharyan, started talks on Monday.

The Iranian president was accompanied by his country's ministers of oil and energy as well as a number of officials of its oil and gas sectors.

The two presidents, after the inaugural ceremony, proceeded to the Armenian Customs Office building, where they are to sign cooperation agreements in the fields of electricity, water and energy.

The two presidents, in their talks, will also discuss bilateral relations in addition to the new gas pipeline.

Their talks will be followed by a press conference, where they will meet representatives of the mass media of both countries and answer questions.

The pipeline has a total length of 140 kilometers, 100 kilometers of which is in Iranian territory and 40 kilometers in Armenian territory. It will transfer 10 million cubic meters of Iranian natural gas to Armenia per day in its initial phase.

Test operations on the project have been conducted. The project will be ready for delivery to Armenia within the next few months.

The pipeline has an approximate cost of USD 120 million, 85 percent of which was financed by the Export Development Bank of Iran (EDBI) and the remaining 15 percent put up by Yerevan.

Inauguration of the pipeline will allow transfer of 400 million cubic meters of Iranian gas to Armenia per year during the first phase of the project, this figure later to be increased to 2.5 billion cubic meters per year.

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