Հայ
Рус- 4 June, 2024
- Economy and Energy
The importance of storing gas cannot be overestimated taking into account the role and importance of natural gas both in the energy, production and economy sectors, as well as in meeting basic needs in households. For this reason, many countries have certain amounts of gas stored for hard times.
Union of Informed Citizens has sent inquiries and conducted studies on the volumes of gas storage in Armenia to find out whether the stored gas reserves are sufficient.
Taking the information published by the RA Public Services Regulatory Commission as baseline data, let us consider the average volumes of gas consumed by the Republic of Armenia in recent years.
Table. The average annual cost over the past 3 years (imported from Russia and Iran together, as well as taken from gas pipelines and underground gas storage and station, minus the volumes pumped through gas pipelines and the station, in million cubic meters)
|
2021 |
2022 |
2023 |
Yearly average |
Monthly average
|
|
approx. 2823.2 (8469,5 / 3) |
approx. 235.3 (2823.2 / 12)
|
Of course, the average monthly figure may change somewhat depending on weather conditions and other circumstances.
It should also be noted that the volume of gas supplied to the Republic of Nagorno Karabakh has also been calculated here, as it is impossible to separate it from the available information.
It is noteworthy that in response to the inquiry sent by the Union of Informed Citizens regarding the volumes of gas stored over the last five years, Gazprom Armenia informed that this information is considered a trade secret, without presenting any justification.
On the other hand, the Neftegaz news agency published specific indicators, according to which, in the autumn-winter season of 2024/2025, the operational reserves of gas in the underground storage facilities of Armenia should amount to 0.107 billion cubic meters.
In other words, by the end of 2024, Armenia is expected to have 0.107 billion cubic meters of gas reserves.
Even if we do not consider the fact that gas consumption in winter is much higher than in spring and summer, and if we look at the averaged figures for the half year, we can obviously see that 107 million cubic meters of gas will meet Armenia’s needs for just two weeks.
Moreover, according to the information provided by the RA Ministry of Territorial Administration and Infrastructure, the highest index of gas volumes stored in the Abovyan underground gas storage station in the period 1999-2018 was 162.3 million cubic meters, which was recorded in 2018.
In other words, the current gas volume of 107 million cubic meters is 1/3 lower than the indicator in 2018 when the total volume of gas consumption was 2484.2 million cubic meters, i.e. even significantly less than the same indicator in 2023.
This means that the current volume of 107 million cubic meters of gas is 1/3 lower than the figure recorded in 2018, when the total volume of gas consumption was 2484.2 million cubic meters, that is, even significantly less than the same index in 2023.
Thus, in 2018 gas reserves in Armenia were sufficient for about three weeks (which was a low number in itself), while now they can meet the needs of the country for only two weeks.
Ruzanna Avagimyan
Union of Informed Citizens
