At a press conference held on 20 October, Armenia’s Minister of Energy Infrastructure and Natural Resources Ashot Manukyan stated that Armenia has offered to become an intermediary in resolving debt obligations between Iran and Turkmenistan.
“Turkmen gas was supposed to pass through Iran.In the north of Iran there is no direct pipeline which could connect Turkmenistan to Armenia but the transit through Iran’s gas supply system will increase the transit distance approximately three times, in which case the gas transit will not be profitable”, — the news outlet “Erkramas” quotes Manukyan.
Another option is the gas purchase between Yerevan, Tehran and Ashgabat within the framework of resolving the debt issue between Turkmenistan and Iran.
“We have proposed our involvement in settling debt management issues between Turkmenistan and Iran and they have accepted our proposal”, Manukyan said.According to him, the sides could use swap deals.
Iran, which owes over 1,5 billion dollars to Turkmenistan, will supply gas to Armenia, which, in its turn, will supply other merchandise to Turkmenistan in exchange for the Iranian debt.
Let us recall that in late 2016 a dispute broke out between Iran and Turkmenistan after “Turkmengas” demanded that the National Iranian Gas Company (NIGC) should pay its debt in the amount of $1,8 to 2 billion.
Iranian media outlets reported that after lengthy negotiations the sides had reached a mutual agreement.Despite this, on 1 January 2017 Turkmenistan stopped gas supplies to Iran.
Later, in May 2017 the Managing Director of NIGC highlighted that the gas swap from Turkmenistan to the Azerbaijan Republic through Iranian territory was continuing.
As of today, the entire swap deal scheme is not clear. Armenia intends to use barter trade to settle accounts with Turkmenistan, but it is not specified how this will affect the financial claims of “Turkmengas” towards NIGC and how the Iranian debt will be settled.