EXCLUSIVE. Anatoly Yanovsky: Russia cooperates with South Caucasus on mutually beneficial basis

Russia is cooperating with Armenia and Azerbaijan in the energy sector on a mutually beneficial basis, Russian Deputy Minister of Energy, Anatoly Yanovsky, told Vestnik Kavkaza on the sidelines of the international conference titled 'Russia and Turkey: strengthening of multi-faceted partnership'.

"We have established working, normal, mutually beneficial relations with the independent states, which are the former Soviet republics. In particular, Azerbaijan has recently hosted a meeting of the Intergovernmental Commission, which was headed by Mr Rogozin on the Russian side. We reported on the results of our cooperation, which covers the gas, oil and electricity spheres. In particular, not so long ago, at the request of the Azerbaijani side, a new contract was signed to supply gas to Azerbaijan amounting to 2 billion cubic meters for methane production," Yanovsky said.

There is a connection in the oil and electricity sectors. "Our companies are actively working in Azerbaijan on the oil market. Approximately 10% of the market petroleum products are sold through the service stations of the Lukoil. We have signed an intergovernmental agreement in the electricity sphere, according to which our energy systems work in parallel, there is a mutual flow of energy from Russia to Azerbaijan, from Azerbaijan to Russia, which provides the reliability of our power systems," the deputy minister noted.

The cooperation with Armenia is also developing, but in different schemes. "You know that quite large assets in Armenia belong to Russian companies. This also applies to the company ‘ArmRosGazprom’, which is 100% owned by Gazprom, which owns the gas transmission system that guarantees the supply of gas to all consumers on the territory of Armenia. The situation with mass rallies in Armenia, which was connected with the decision by the Armenian government to raise electricity tariffs, directly affected our interests, because the electric grid organization in Armenia belongs to our company RAO ‘UES’," Anatoly Yanovsky stressed.

"In favor of the agreements that have been achieved with our Armenian colleagues, we had announced a tender for the audit activity, on the one hand, for the body that regulates tariffs in Armenia, on the other hand, for the company itself, to find out whether its decisions were proved. As far as I know, these studies are still being carried out. They are not finished yet, the results will be presented when they are finished, first of all, to the Armenian government," the Deputy Minister of Energy noted.