ArmInfo.The Ministry of Energy of the Russian Federation has developed a draft federal law proposing to ratify the Protocol amending the Agreement with Armenia on cooperation in the supply of natural gas, oil products and rough diamonds to the republic. The document, as reported by the Parliamentary Newspaper, is posted on the portal of draft regulatory legal acts.
The agreement between the countries was signed on December 2, 2013, and the Protocol on amendments to it was signed by the head of the Ministry of Energy Alexander Novak and the Minister of Territorial Administration and Infrastructure of Armenia Suren Papikyan on October 4 this year.
As indicated on the website of the Ministry of Energy, the Protocol provides for the abolition of the temporary periodic customs declaration of oil products for deliveries to Armenia. It is assumed that the signing of the document will provide the republic with stable energy supplies from Russia.
It should be noted that according to the data of the State Revenue Committee of the Republic of Armenia, the import of petroleum products to Armenia in quantitative terms increased by 4.1% per annum in 2019 to 160.4 thousand tons, with a decrease in customs value by 4.9% to $ 121.2 million, in while a year earlier in the same period growth was recorded both in volume - by 14.8%, and in value - by 36.6%. According to the source, in the reporting period, the export of petroleum products suffered a significant increase, against a sharp decline a year ago. Export volumes from 393 kg in the first half of 2018 increased to 4 tons for the same period in 2019, against the background of a several-fold increase in customs value. Thus, according to the RA Customs Union, in value terms, export of oil products from $ 700 reached $ 6.4 thousand.
During the reporting period, petroleum products were mainly imported from Russia (78.2%), Turkey (8%), Iran (5.2%), Bulgaria (3.6%), Georgia (1%), as well as Greece, Germany, Iraq, Japan, Ukraine, Lithuania, Korea, Belarus, France, USA, Poland, Belgium, France, UAE, Italy, India. It should be noted that in the first half of 2019, Armenia exported the dominant volume of oil products (87.5%) to Georgia, and the rest fell to Cyprus (10%) and Russia (2.5%).