Russia cuts gas price for Armenia by $24 to $165

Russia and Armenia have signed an agreement on Russian gas pricing offering a discount of $24 for one cubic meter,  TASS reports.

“Today, we signed an agreement with the energy ministry, under which the gas price will be lowered by $24 to $165,” Armenian President Serzh Sargsyan said on Monday during talks with Russian President Vladimir Putin.

Two protocols in the gas sector were prepared for signing during Sargsyan’s visit to Moscow. They are a protocol on amendments to the agreement on purchase and sale of shares and further activities of ArmRosgazprom Co, and a protocol on the pricing procedure for Russian natural gas sold to Armenia.

“These documents are based on earlier agreement on lowering prices on Russian gas from January 2015 after Armenia’s joining the Eurasian Economic Union,” according to the documents prepared for Sargsyan’s visit to Russia.

The Russian Energy Ministry and the Ministry of Energy and Natural Resources of Armenia signed a protocol amending the agreement on the formation of prices for the supply of natural gas to Armenia. The document establishes the legal reduction of the base price for the supplies of Russian gas to Armenia from $189 to $165 per 1,000 cubic meters, the Russian Energy Ministry said Monday.

The document also defines the basic conditions for ensuring proper functioning of Gazprom Armenia.

Russian Energy Minister Alexander Novak said that Russia is currently the main supplier of oil products to Armenia. In the current year about 70,000 tonnes of oil products was delivered to the county duty free. Duty free supplies of natural gas to Armenia amounted to more than 1 bln cubic meters.

In 1H 2015, Gazprom supplied 886 mln cubic meters of gas to Armenia.