V. Sargsyan: Gas tariff will remain same for ordinary consumers

“The documents signed yesterday are an important step taken by our partner Russia. We fixed the supplied gas tariff formula for 5 years, which is of importance as the gas price has changed five times in the past five years. Although it was not reflected each time in a gas price rise for consumers, each time we sought ways of compensation without any prejudice to consumer rights,” Chief of the President’s Staff Vigen Sargsyan said at a press conference today.

According to him, the agreements with the Russian side will ensure stability of gas prices, although the gas tariff for Armenian consumers will remain the same.

As regards the sale of 20% of ArmRosgazprom Company’s shares, V. Sargsyan said that the government’s stake was transferred to the Russian side to ‘compensate for the gas price difference’ between the delivered gas price calculated at the border and the price for consumers.

As a result, although Russia nullifies the gas export duty under the agreements reached yesterday, that is, henceforth Armenia will receive gas at a price which is by 30% lower than the contractual price, nevertheless the sale tariffs in the territory of Armenia will not be reviewed.

“As a result of these agreements the gas price will not decline, but the obvious advantage is that it will not increase either because the price indicated in the agreement was initially 30% higher than the price used in calculations during the latest increase in the tariff. In other words, instead of $270, $189 was used in calculations, which was the index, over which we could conduct negotiations and come to an agreement with the Russian side yesterday,” Vigen Sargsyan explained, adding that if the negotiations with the Russian side had not been successful, Armenia would have had to review domestic tariffs once again.

“If the negotiations had not been successful and we had not signed that agreement yesterday, it could have been necessary to review the tariff once again, but we managed to avoid it not only yesterday, but in the next five years,’ Vigen Sargsyan said.