Tehran, Iran, Oct. 24
By Milad Fashtami - Trend:
Armenia has reportedly requested Iran to provide the country with more gas.
Based on a long-term contract, Iran barters its gas for Armenian electricity.
Armenian Energy and Natural Resources Minister Yervand Zakharian visited Tehran and held several meeting with high-ranking Iranian officials, including Oil Minister Bijan Namdar Zanganeh and Energy Minister Hamid Chitchian.
During the meetings the sides discussed possible ways to boost bilateral relations in the energy sector.
Iran's Fars News Agency reported on October 24 that bartering more electricity for Iranian gas was among the top requests of the Armenian side.
Armenia's former energy minister had previously announced that Yerevan is ready to annually import two billion cubic meters of gas from Tehran.
According to Fars, the two country's contract currently obliges Iran to averagely export one million cubic meters of gas to Armenia.
Iran bartered about 900 million cubic meters of its gas with 1.14 billion Kwh of Armenian electricity during the last Iranian fiscal year (ended on March 20), according to the official data, released by Iran's Energy and Oil Ministry. Iran doesn't export crude oil to Armenia.
The trade turnover between the two neighboring countries totaled USD 293 million in 2013.
Iran exported USD 198 million worth of goods to its northern neighbor in 2013 while Armenia sold USD 95 worth of commodities to the Islamic Republic.
Iran's total in-place oil reserves have been estimated at more than 560 billion barrels, with about 140 billion barrels of recoverable oil. Heavy and extra heavy varieties of crude oil account for roughly 70-100 billion barrels of the total reserves.