Rosneft is coming to Armenia?

Rosneft is looking for ways to enter the Armenian market. Commersant was informed about this from unkown sources. According to those sources, the announcement has been made by the country’s government. Rosneft may become the main oil provider in Armenia and will create a joint venture with the local companies, which will increase the number of petrol stations in Armenia with about 40-50. It’ll create a petrol station as well as in Yerevan Airport. How are the shares of the joint venture going to be distributed, it’s not clear, because Rosneft just started to develop the proposal, and the first negotiations concerning the cooperation will take place in the end of August,- Commersant reported. That information is not commented by Rosneft.
Armenian oil market is estimated as 340-360 thousand tons per year, which is fully imported. The main volume of it is imported to the Georgian port of Poti from Rominian OMV plant. An oil-processing company of 2.4 million ton intensity operates in Rominia, which belong to Russian LUKOIL company. Commersant has been informed by its sources, that two big companies deal with the oil import in Armenia- “Mika Limited” LLC, which belongs Mikhayil Baghdasarov, and “Flash” LLC. The Petrol station in the airport belongs to Mikhayil Baghdasarov’s company, to whom belongs also Armavia company.
One of the Russian airlines has been informed by its sources, that only the aircraft belonging to Armavia company use the petrol station in the airport, because the cost of kerosene is pretty high there. The Commersant interviewer mentioned, that the cost of petrol is about 40% higher, than in the Russian market. The cost of Petrol in Armenian ranges around 1 euro, while in Russia the average cost of petrol, according to the Fuel Association of Moscow, ranges around 0.76 euro.
Nomos-Bank analyst Denis Borisov mentioned, that the Armenian market may be appealing to Rosneft, since the company seeks to expand its export activities, conquering the markets of territories, and besides, oil business continues to remain highly profitable. He also mentions, that Rosneft company continues to increase the capacity of the Tuapse oil-processing plant, taking it from 4.55 million tons to 12 million tons, and for that, it’s necessary to expand the export activities.
However, from the aspect of logistics, the oil export to Armenia through the Black Sea and Poti port, may contain a political factor,- the expert notes. It’d be impossible to realize the oil export to Armenia through Azerbaijan, and there are no bypassing railways,- the Troyki Dialogue investment company analyst Valery Nesterov reports. He also mentions, that the gas is imported to Armenia via gas pipelines passing over Georgian borders, and it’s unlikely for them to prefer to worsen their relations with Armenia. Therefore Nesterof doesn’t exclude that Rosneft will manage to import oil to Armenia over Georgia.
Lurer.com adds, that not all the data, reported to Commersant, correspond to reality, in particular, the main companies, that deal with oil import to Armenia are “Flash” LLC and “City Petrolium” LLC. More than 80% of oil imports belongs to them. The main oil providers for Armenia are Russia (2011- 25.5% imports), Romania (23.6%), Bulgaria (21.2%) Greece and Turkmenistan (7.3% each).
The high cost of petrol in Armenia is based on the monopolization of petrol, and the emerge of a new company in the market, will give the opportunity to destroy the monopolization of the market, creating a competitive field, due to which, it’ll be possible to record a reduce in the petrol cost in the Armenian market.