Pipeliners

25.01.2006 MosNews - Official Yerevan denied information that during recent negotiations Russian President Vladimir Putin and his Armenian counterpart Robert Kocharyan agreed that Russian gas monopoly Gazprom would receive 45 percent stake in Iran-Armenia gas pipeline in return for cheap gas. MosNews has reported on this matter on Monday, Jan. 23, citing a report by Russian Kommersant daily. The press secretary of Armenian President Viktor Sogomonyan, quoted by Kommersant, said that these reports "absolutely do not correspond to reality". According to the press attache, during their meeting, which took place on Sunday, Jan. 22, Putin and Kocharyan "agreed to continue negotiations and most likely the final decision will be made in the middle of February". Another source in Armenian government told the Russian paper that "no progress was made during Moscow negotiations and the sides remained at the positions that were stated during the meeting between the two leaders which took place in December in Sochi". During that meeting Moscow demanded that Yerevan either buys Russian natural gas for a new price ($110 per 1,000 cubic meters instead of previous price of $54) or transfers to Russia's ownership all of the republic's gas transportation infrastructure and the fifth energy block of Razdansky TPP. The Armenian side says that this offer is "unacceptable" for Yerevan. At present time Armenia is not buying any Russian gas at all, using reserves it has stocked at the Avobyansk gas storage.