Tuesday, January 31, 2006

GAS SUPPLIES IN ARMENIA TO RETURN TO NORMAL WEDNESDAY - COMPANY

RIA Novosti, Russia
Jan 31 2006


YEREVAN, January 31 (RIA Novosti, Gamlet Matevosyan) - Natural gas supplies from southern Russia to Armenia resumed Monday night after a week's disruption, and will reach normal levels throughout the country Wednesday, an energy industry spokesman said.

Shushan Sardaryan, a representative of the ArmRosgazprom Russian-Armenian joint venture, said: "As we predicted, gas supplies to Armenia resumed at around 8:00 on Monday evening [5:00 p.m. GMT].

In fact, gas from Russia began flowing earlier, but Armenian and Georgian specialists were still solving technical tasks."

Russian natural gas and electricity supplies to Georgia and Armenia were cut off January 22 when two explosions hit the Mozdok-Tbilisi gas pipeline in the Russian Republic of North Ossetia and a power line in southern Russia.

Sardaryan said that in the week since the supplies were disrupted, Armenians had been largely unaffected, since ArmRosgazprom maintained supplies using its reserves.

ArmRosgazprom, which is owned by the Armenian Energy Ministry (45%), Russian energy giant Gazprom (45%) and independent Russian oil and gas company Itera (10%), drew gas from a storage facility containing 80 million cubic meters.

Russian gas enters Armenia via a single pipeline passing through Georgian territory. ArmRosgazprom has monopoly rights over supply and distribution to Armenia's domestic market.

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