YEREVAN, December 31, /ARKA/. Russia's Gazprom said today that the price of natural gas it ships to Armenia across Georgia will be raised from the current $150 per one thousand cubic meters to $165. The new price is effective from January 1, 2019. The announcement was made following a meeting between Gazprom chief Alexei Miller and Armenia's acting deputy prime minister Mher Grigoryan in Moscow.
“In accordance with the supplementary agreement signed to the contract between Gazprom Export LLC and Gazprom Armenia CJSC, determining the price of gas supplies to Armenia in 2019, the price of Russian gas at the border of Georgia and Armenia will be $165 per one thousand cubic meters from January 1, 2019,' Gazprom said in a statement posted on its official website.
It also said that the contract between Gazprom Export and Gazprom Armenia CJSC on the delivery of 2.5 billion cubic meters of Russian natural gas to Armenia is effective until the end of 2019. The statement says that Gazprom Armenia will continue consultations with the relevant state bodies of the Armenian government on the structure of domestic gas tariffs.
At the beginning of April 2016, Armenia and Russia signed an intergovernmental agreement, according to which Russia lowered the price of natural gas supplied to Armenia (at the border) from $165 to $150 per thousand cubic meters. This agreement expires on . Armenian media reports said earlier that the price of Russian gas might increase from January 1, 2019 to $215 per thousand cubic meters.
Armenia's acting prime minister Nikol Pashinyan said in a Facebook video today that although Russia will raise the price of gas for Armenia, but "thanks to some internal decisions the price of gas for consumers will not rise."
In September Nikol Pashinyan ordered creation of a task force that was to look into the factors and components that influence the price of Russian natural gas delivered to Armenia. During a September 8 meeting in the Kremlin Pashinyan and Russian President Vladimir Putin agreed to look into the pricing of Russian gas delivered to Armenia.
The Russian natural gas is delivered to Armenia by Gazprom at a $150 per one thousand cubic meters, but Gazprom’s Armenian subsidiary – Gazprom Armenia – sells it to Armenian households at almost $300. -0-