YEREVAN. – Armenia—and not Russia—is the source of the contemplations around the high Russian natural gas prices in Armenia, economist Ashot Yeghiazaryan told reporters on Thursday.

“Armenia already has an agreement with Russia on the base price for gas, and it is no longer subject to change in 2014.
“The contemplations around the gas prices should be on another matter: Why is the overhead of the [gas] distribution company—Gazprom Armenia—so high? The distribution companies in other countries don’t take such a high margin,” Yeghiazaryan noted.

The Russian natural gas costs $189 per 1,000 cubic meters on the Armenian border. The gas is supplied at $276.98 per 1,000 cubic meters for Armenia’s large consumers, and for 156,000 drams (approx. $377) per 1,000 cubic meters in other cases.