Gazprom cedes Armenia to Iran

RUSSIA'S Gazprom will spend $200m building a second natural gas pipeline linking Iran with Armenia by 2009, according Armenia's energy minister Armen Movsisyan. However, local sources tell Petroleum Economist that while the deal cedes Armenia's gas market to Iran, Gazprom comes out of it on top. Armenia has not said what the capacity of the new 200 km pipeline will be. But it is understood that it will be sufficient only to meet incremental demand not met by an existing link from Iran – nixing any plans Tehran once had to export gas to Europe through the country. Georgia and even Ukraine had considered Armenia a possible transit country for Iranian gas, which could have helped them diversify