YEREVAN. – WikiLeaks website published another cable from U.S. Embassy to Armenia. It dwells in details on the construction of the gas pipeline between Armenia and Iran.

“Armenian officials have again proposed a gas pipeline from Iran to Armenia as a way to alleviate Armenia’s concerns about the future diversity of energy sources. Other key factors, however, including the price of gas and the size of the pipeline, do not figure into the proposed deal, indicating that there is significantly less to the agreement than it appears and that the pipeline is still more a farfetched desire of the government than a realizable goal,” the  February 24, 2004 cable reads.

Armenia has long seen a potential gas pipeline from Iran as way to guarantee their energy supply after the inevitable nuclear power plant (ANPP).

Armenia’s demand for gas from Iran is not strong enough to justify the expense of building a pipeline.  A pipeline only makes sense if the donor community would pay for it (perhaps in exchange for closing ANPP), or if the price of gas from Russia were to rise to such levels that a pipeline would become competitive for private investment.

Anticipating the inevitable closure of ANPP, Armenia expects to pursue some strategy that reduces its reliance on the gas pipeline through Georgia.

While an Iran-Armenia pipeline would be more expensive than buying Russian gas, it may well be the cheapest among Armenia’s other options. 

But as long as the Armenian government is unwilling to pass the extra costs of diverse sourcing on the consumers, and no international donors are forthcoming, there is little or no possibility of an Armenian-Iranian gas pipeline project getting off the ground, the cable reads.