How can the natural gas price inflation on the border not have an impact on the natural gas tariff? In response to a question from a journalist at the National Assembly on 18 April, acting Minister of Energy Infrastructures and Natural Resources of Armenia Garegin Baghramyan said the natural gas import price was raised on 1 January, and as long as the final tariffs for consumers remain the same, the natural gas company is compensating the difference.

He also refuted news that the government has accumulated debts.

Baghramyan stated that Gazprom Armenia CJSC has drafted some recommendations for subsidization of the natural gas price, but can’t specifically state when the results will be clear since the Russian Gazprom company has to consider those recommendations. When told that the company is subsidizing the natural gas price by laying off inspectors, Baghramyan said Gazprom Armenia has launched the process of optimization.

According to Garegin Baghramyan, during the recent session of the Armenian-Russian Intergovernmental Commission in Moscow, an agreement was reached to submit the draft agreement presenting the mechanisms for forming the natural gas price on the border by 1 July 2019.

“The agreement will be a five-year agreement, and I believe it will make the natural gas price clear and stable. This will imply a rather predictable amount of the natural price on the border, but if the leaders of Russia and Armenia reach an agreement, the price might be lower than the price to be stated in the agreement,” Garegin Baghramyan concluded.