Setting aside the Georgia angle for a minute.... WTF?! So does this mean... A) Energy Independence B) Environmental Destruction C) Move towards full authoritarianism á la Azerbaijan, or D) All of the above?! ...Armenia arguably possesses vast reserves of shale gas. In June 2011, the energy minister of Armenia and the US Ambassador to Armenia signed a memorandum of understanding about providing US expertise for the exploration of Armenia’s shale gas reserves. The US support is provided by the US Geological Survey (USGS), a scientific organization that also delivers scientific services commercially. Ever since the agreement was made, USGS representatives have discovered 44 million tons of shale reserves near the village of Aramus in Armenia. Moreover, significant amounts of shale deposits were discovered in the districts of Ijevan, Shamut, Jermanis, and Dilizhan (not far from the Georgia-Armenia border). In addition, some conventional natural gas reserves were found in the district of Oktomberiani in a depth of 3.5 km. But this is not the only initiative to exploit the Armenian energy potential. The Armenian ministry of energy commissioned International Minerals & Mines Ltd. (registered on the Isle of Man) to asses Armenia’s energy resources. For this purpose, a joint company – IMM Energy Armenia – was founded in Yerevan. Likewise, in 2012 the Swiss company Integral Petroleum obtained a governmental license for exploration of oil and gas reserves. The involved parties are so optimistic about the exploration prospects that they already signed a production sharing agreement, which will be applied in case of commercially exploitable energy resources being discovered....Also the Canadian Tim Energy has discovered a natural gas field with the reserves of 3 billion cubic meters located in the village of Vartan in the region of Armavir. Representatives of the Canadian Vangold Resources and the Irish Blackstairs Energy believe that also the oil reserves in the regions of Syunik, Vayotsdzore and Gegarkuniky are sufficiently large to allow for commercial extraction.
Posted on: Wed, 12 Nov 2014 10:49:57 +0000
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