TEHRAN -- National Iranian Gas Export Company Managing Director Seyyed Reza Kasaiizadeh announced on Sunday that Iran will start shipments of natural gas to Armenia this week.

Kasaiizadeh told PIN that he would be leaving for Armenia today/tomorrow at the head of a delegation to attend the opening ceremony for the Iran-Armenia gas pipeline.
According to the deal signed in May 2004, Armenia will pay for the gas with electricity it produces at a Soviet-era nuclear power plant.
The NIGEC managing director said the pipeline has a diameter of 30 inches and runs for 113 kilometers from Tabriz, East Azerbaijan Province to the Iran-Armenia border.
The two countries had originally agreed to finalize the project in January 2007, but the Armenians later said they were not ready, Kasaiizadeh added.
He explained that the volume of gas exports could rise to 4 million cubic meters a day in 2011 and to 6.3 million cubic meters a day afterwards.
Kasaiizadeh stated that Armenia has expressed its readiness to receive Iranian gas, and added, “One of the main goals of the trip is to finalize the export of gas to Armenia.