ArmInfo. The Armenian governmental delegation headed by Prime Minister Karen Karapetyan will pay a working visit to Turkmenistan on March 27-28, the Government's press office reports.
The source says that the Armenian delegation includes Minister of Economic Development and Investments Suren Karayan, Minister of Transport, Communication and Information Technologies Vahan Martirosyan, Deputy Foreign Minister Shavarsh Kocharyan, Head of the General Department of Cicil Aviation Sergey Avetisyan and other officials.
Earlier Armenian Deputy Minister of Energy Infrastructures and Natural Resources Hayk Harutyunyan told ArmInfo that Armenia is holding active negotiations with Turkmenistan to find the best possible ways of supplies of Turkmen gas to Armenia. It was previously reported that Ashgabat offered Tehran to increase the current gas swap amount for Armenia and Azerbaijan to 15 mln cu m per day. But Harutyunyan noted that in the case of Armenia the matter concerns smaller amounts. The Iran-Armenia gas pipeline capacity is 6 mln cu m per day and it is simply impossible to ensure big swap amounts.
On Jan 13, Armenian Prime Minister Karen Karapetyan said that the Government of Armenia is working at various gas swap schemes. He added that the swap transactions were discussed with the Iranian and Turkmen ambassadors on the first day of 2017. Today the only route of natural gas supply to Armenia from Russia is the territory of Georgia, which is constantly discussed in the context of development of Moscow-Tbilisi relations. Thus, the swap supplies of Turkmen gas to Armenia via Iran are the best way to ensure the energy safety of the republic. The swap transactions seem to be able to protect Armenia against the constant discrepancies between Moscow and Tbilisi and against the excessive appetites of the Gazprom top managers.
