“Gas Tariff will Decrease by 15-20% for Armenia”: Konstantin Simonov

Konstantin Simonov, Head of National Energy Security Fund, jokingly expressed the view that Armenia may gain from occurrences in Russia, taking into consideration Russia’s economic condition. In his words, speaking of Eurasian Economic Union (EEU), it’s worth saying what it’ll give:

“The idea is quite simple, it’s an economic structure, and if Armenia, with its small population, thinks of enlarging its economy, major secret for success is the market. It’s clear, that there are political layers in EEU, as well as in economy. We saw what impact politics had in our relations with the Ukraine, and what’s going on in economy of the Ukraine. The idea of EEU is quite simple and reasonable. Georgia also didn’t join EEU, and I don’t observe any changes in Georgia’s economy. Original models haven’t been anticipated there, and nobody was waiting for them in European market.”

In his words, price for the gas supplied to Armenia from Russia is rather low; Gazprom company obtained its property in Armenia’s gas system, and is obtaining cheap gas, however, there are different explanations to it in Armenia. Fall of prices in world market is another issue, and there are expectations, that price for Russian gas will go down, anyway, price for gas supplied to Armenia is very low though, as compared to other consumers.”

He considers, negotiations on decreasing gas price will lead to cheaper price for gas, although it’s rather cheap, “I think, gas price will decrease by 15-20% for Armenia.”

Speaking of Iran’s role in the region, he noted, that Iran has hope to return what it lost in the sanctioning period, and it considers special privileges will be granted to it, “Iran has always been a country exporting oil, and now it’s going to export in larger volumes. In world gas market Iran isn’t an actor, but it has potential. It’s clear, that we are competitors with Iran, but we are for healthy competition. Elections will be held in Iran tomorrow, and I think Iran has many surprises both for us and Europeans. So, we’ll live and see, how things will develop, accordingly, we’ll think of cooperation.”