In recent months, the Azerbaijani SOCAR oil and gas company has actually appeared on Armenia’s gasoline market, which has become Armenia's supplier of gasoline and diesel fuel through intermediary organizations. Opposition MP Edgar Ghazaryan stated this during the debates on the matter of electing a member to the Competition and Consumer Protection Commission of Armenia at Friday’s session of the National Assembly.

"By acting in this way, what share of Armenia’s oil product market does SOCAR currently occupy?" the lawmaker asked, addressing Shushan Sargsyan, the candidate for the aforementioned vacant position, nominated by the ruling Civil Contract party.

Sargsyan, in turn, stated that she is not aware of any cases of direct import of gasoline to the Armenian market by the Azerbaijani SOCAR company, or under its brand.

"According to the information I have, in the last few months we [i.e. Armenia] have not had any imports from the country you mentioned. We import gasoline from various countries, including European [ones]," Sargsyan noted.

Ghazaryan countered: "The only company engaged in oil and gas extraction and processing in Azerbaijan is SOCAR. If Armenia’s authorities declare that diesel fuel or gasoline is imported from Azerbaijan, then it must taken into account that there are simply no other entities there [in Azerbaijan]. Does SOCAR not participate in this? How so? I am talking about supplies through intermediary companies."

In response, Sargsyan simply repeated her aforesaid arguments.