On 18 December, the Chair of the Standing Committee on Regional and Eurasian Integration of the National Assembly of Armenia Mikayel Melkumyan stated that Yerevan is holding talks over a possible purchase of natural gas from Turkmenistan, reported news.am. 

Melkumyan stated that he had met with Iran’s energy minister during the recent visit by the Minister of Territorial Administration and Infrastructures of Armenia Suren Papikyan to Iran and that the issue on purchase of natural gas is under consideration. “One of the goals is to create a common energy corridor from Turkmenistan to Russia through Iran, Armenia and Georgia,” Melkumyan clarified. He also noted that Armenia currently receives three times less natural gas from Iran through the natural gas pipeline than the bandwidth allows.

At the same time, he noted that work is underway for the early operation of the scheme. “Iran is also very interested in the implementation of this project,” he said.

Back in early September, Ambassador of Armenia to the Islamic Republic of Iran Artashes Tumanyan noted in his speech at the Armenian Parliament that Yerevan can work out a scheme to exchange Turkmen gas for Iranian gas. “It will positively affect the position of interested parties in the gas market,” the Ambassador noted. Within the gas-swap deal, if implemented, Turkmen gas will not be supplied to Armenia physically, but to the Mazenderan Province of Iran, and Yerevan will receive the given volume of Iranian gas at its border. 

The issue of increasing export of Turkmen oil and gas products to Armenia was also discussed in detail in Ashgabat this summer. The meeting was attended by the Minister of Finance and Economy of Turkmenistan Batyr Bazarov and an Armenian delegation, which included Deputy Minister of Economy Avag Avanesyan and Deputy Minister of High-Tech Industry Gegham  Vardanyan.

Russia, Armenia’s main natural gas supplier, increased its gas prices to the country by 10% at the beginning of 2019. At the last meeting between Armenian Prime Minister Nikol Pashinyan and Russian President Vladimir Putin (Caucasus Watch reported) it was agreed that the gas price for Armenia would remain unchanged despite the speculations that Russia might further increase the price. 

Iran is the second most important gas supplier to Armenia. In late 2017 an agreement was announced for Armenia to boost Iran gas imports by up to 25 percent, and to increase electricity exports by a similar amount. Currently, the maximum throughput of the Iran-Armenia gas pipeline is about 2.2bn cubic metres per year. Armenia purchases some 365-370 mcm from Iran as part of the ongoing “gas for electric” scheme.

As for Turkmenistan, in March 2018, the Turkmen President Gurbanguly Berdymukhamedov and his Iranian counterpart Hassan Rouhani discussed the idea that Iran would facilitate the process of exporting Turkmen gas to markets further afield. Ashgabat has since January 2017 been embroiled in a dispute with Iran over possible unpaid gas bills. Turkmenistan claimed that Iran owes it around $1.5 billion for gas it delivered in previous years. Tehran has scoffed at the bill and insisted it wants to resolve the disagreement through international arbitration.