Armenia might boost gas imports 21%, power generation 10% in 2012
YEREVAN. Nov 15 (Interfax) - Armenia might boost electricity production by 10.2% and gas imports by 20.9% this year, Armenian Energy and Natural Resources Minister Armen Movsisyan told the government while presenting a report on economic growth potential on Thursday.
In particular, Armenia may generate 8.1 billion kilowatt hours (kWh) of electricity this year. Power consumption is anticipated to grow by 6.5% on the domestic market, while exports will expand 17.9% to 1.8 billion dram.
In January-September of this year, Armenia churned out 5.9 billion kWh of electricity, compared to 5.5 billion kWh in the same nine months of 2011. Domestic power consumption rose 8% to 4.4 billion dram, and exports edged up 0.5%, Movsisyan said.
Armenia might increase natural gas sales by 17% this year. It imported 1.6 billion cubic meters (bcm) of natural gas in January-September 2012, compared to 1.3 bcm in the first nine months of last year, he said.
Besides that, ore extraction in the country jumped 36% to 19 million tonnes in January-September, compared to 14 million tonnes in the same nine months of last year. Commodity output totaled 149.6 billion dram, versus 135.9 billion dram in January-September 2011. At the same time, sales were down 10%, which Movsisyan attributed to changes in metal prices on global markets.
"Entrepreneurs are expecting more favorable market conditions for product exports," he said, noting that global copper prices fell 14%, and molybdenum prices dropped 26%.
As a result of reduced product sales, tax revenues from subsoil users into the Armenian budget were down to 16.7 billion dram in January-September, compared with 32.6 billion dram last year, he said.
As reported, Russia delivered 24.3% more natural gas to Armenia in January-September of this year, at 1.323 bcm.
Armenia received 2.069 bcm of gas in 2011, including 1.609 bcm from Russia and 460 million cubic meters from Iran.
Armenia gets the majority of its gas from Russia through Georgia, as well as from Iran in exchange for electricity.
Last year, Armenia produced 7.433 billion kWh of electricity, up 14.5% over 2010.
The official exchange rate on November 15 was 406.77 dram/$1.