Armenian consumers will not pay more this year for natural gas mostly imported from Russia despite a recent 10 percent increase in its wholesale price for Armenia, Energy Minister Garegin Baghramian said on Friday.
Russia’s Gazprom monopoly announced on New Year’s Eve that it has raised the price from $150 to $165 per thousand cubic meters. The announcement followed fresh talks held by the Gazprom chairman, Alexei Miller, and Armenia’s Deputy Prime Minister Grigorian as well as phone conversations between Russian President Vladimir Putin and Armenian Prime Minister Nikol Pashinian.
Pashinian, who also met with Putin in Moscow earlier in December, assured Armenians that the retail prices set by Armenia’s Gazprom-owned gas distribution network will remain the same in 2019.
Baghramian reaffirmed that pledge when he spoke to RFE/RL’s Armenian service. “There is an understanding that in 2019 that [10 percent price rise] will not affect the tariffs for consumers,” he said, commenting on the government’s ongoing negotiations with the Gazprom Armenia operator.
The minister said that the gas distributor will offset its additional losses with cost cutting and other “optimization” of its activities. It will cut back on “unnecessary expenditures and investments,” he added.
Gazprom Armenia has so far made no public statements to that effect. The company only said on January 7 that it will not ask Armenian utility regulators to raise the retail prices until its talks with the government are over.
Gazprom Armenia’s chief executive, Hrant Tadevosian, complained in November that his company is operating at a loss for a second consecutive year. He attributed them to its decision in late 2016 to cut the gas prices for households and corporate consumers.
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