Tigran Sargsyan gave an interview to Interfax speaking mainly about the gas prices and the negotiations to spread light upon the dark sides of the agreements between the two countries’ gas price main principles. The PM also spoke about elaboration of a methodology to define a gas price. The general director of the national energy fond Konstantin Simonov spoke about the gas price issue with the Armenian First News and Analyses.
When asked how significant are the political and economic factors in the Russian-Armenian negotiations on the gas price, Simonov told Armenia is the only post-Soviet republic that has the lowest possible gas price and Russia does this based on the hard economic times for Armenia. Besides, Armenia was among the first to handle all its gas supervision to “Gazprom” which is quite favorable for the Russian side and as a return of gratitude Russia keeps the low gas price in Armenia. Simonov reminded the gas price per 1000 cubic meters equals to $180 which is a rather low price compared to e.g., Ukraine, where the gas price is $430 but Ukraine does not transfer its gas supply to “Gazprom”. Simonov told the deal of having the gas price $180 has expired but because of the political factors Russia keeps the price the same.
Simonov said he is not familiar with what the Armenian mass media states about the gas price having been raised long before and is about $200 or $220. He stated the agreement of “Gazprom” directly fixes the price as $180 and there can be no deviations from the number as the document states.
Simonov also rejected the view that the gas price alteration has something to do with the upcoming presidential elections in Armenia and the active discussions on the gas price actually are irrelative to the political changes in Armenia. He brought the example of Ukraine where there is not going to be any presidential election next year but the gas price negotiations are not less active.
When asked why the negotiations take so long and still there is no mutually arrived at conclusion Simonov concluded his interview stating that the process was typical to any negotiation: one sides wants to raise the price, the other part wants to preserve what it already has. This is the reason negotiations a take long time.
