Armenia's Inert Gas Service

Energy-starved Armenia is turning to gas, but there are now concerns that the uncontrolled conversion process is costing lives and causing chaos.

This winter alone, around 30 people died because of poisoning, fires and explosions caused by defects in the domestic gas system.

Gevork Danielian, Armenia`s deputy general prosecutor, told IWPR that figures held by his office show that the number of gas-related accidents has been growing over the past five years as the country converts to the use of natural gas. The prosecutor’s office is now investigating several such cases.

Karine Stepanian, a Yerevan housewife, complained that, “The long-awaited gas installation has brought a load of problems: there’s a constant smell of gas in the house, yet the gas service people insist it’s all OK. If, God forbid, there is some kind of accident, I bet no one will take responsibility.”

As complaints mounted about the government’s failure to regulate the changeover, President Robert Kocharian announced he would take action. Admitted recently that the rapid pace of the switch to gas use had caught officials, he said, “I have been forced to intervene personally and put things in order, using extreme measures.” It is not yet clear what those measures will entail.

The president also said much of the blame should be apportioned to careless members of the public, and suggested there was an urgent need for education to tell people how to use gas safely.

Armenia has suffered a severe energy crisis since 1990-91 when the Nagorny Karabakh conflict resulted in the closure of the border with Azerbaijan, the traditional route source of were closed off. There was little or no gas available until 1997 and many people cooked on primitive stoves.

The controversial re-opening of the Metsamor nuclear power station in 1995 improved the electricity supply, and currently covers 40 per cent of the country’s energy needs. (See CRS 271, January 26, 2005, “Armenian Atomic Dilemma.”)

The ArmRosGazprom firm is now re-introducing gas as an energy source, following the renovation of the decrepit gas network. Company Shushan Sardarian, a press secretary of the company predicts that by 2007 the company will have more than half a million customers, even more than Armenia had in the Soviet period. ArmRosGazprom is 45 per cent owned by the Armenian government, 45 per cent by the Russian gas giant Gazprom and 10 per cent by another Russian company, Itera.

ArmRosGazprom is only laying pipelines as far as buildings as a whole, and other companies are doing the connection to individual apartments. Experts worry that the connection process is being carried out in a hurry, without the proper care or coordination. Mkrtich Abelian, an engineer, told IWPR, “There is no programme for tackling the problems associated with gas installation in a systematic and organised manner. There is no scheme that sets out how the gas should go from the supplier to the consumer.”

Ordinary citizens have little confidence in the installation work. “The dozens of organisations that install gas supplies within buildings do the same job for varying prices,” said Ashot Mkrtchian, a 40-year-old teacher. “Each of them works out its own routing for the pipes.”

Moreover, because the pipes are being laid above ground, many buildings are now disfigured by webs of metal tubing. This, according to architect Artsvin Grigorian, is “the most flagrant breach of building regulations and practices”.

Officials from ArmRosGazprom say the problem is being corrected. “Even if there have been breaches of construction practice in some places, ArmRosGazprom will soon switch to using polyethylene pipes which will be laid underground,” said Sardarian.

In the meantime, the rate of accidents almost doubled in 2004. According to Nikolai Grigorian, press secretary at the government department for emergency situations, 29 cases of gas poisoning were recorded in just the first two months of 2005.

Grigorian urged consumers not to use unauthorised gas stoves to heat their homes because of the grave risk they pose. “The market is full of Turkish and Iranian-produced heaters that don’t even have smoke flues”, he said.

In neighbouring Georgia, Prime Minister Zurab Zhvania died in January apparently as a result of poisoning from a faulty Iranian gas stove.

Sardarian said consumers are responsible for many of the accidents because they use cheap, home-fitted appliances without ventilation, all in the name of saving money.

However, Danielian of the prosecutor’s office says there is a more fundamental problem of governmental oversight which is now being looked into.

“In this sector, as in any other, there should be state officials responsible for monitoring the situation,” he said. “But it is not an easy matter to work out exactly who is responsible for safety in the sector, as the state energy watchdog was abolished in 2000 without a replacement body being put in place…. A state body responsible for coordinated supervision of the gas sector is essential.”

Twenty four criminal investigations into gas-related accidents are now under way. No prosecutions have yet been started.

“No state official will shoulder responsibility for the dozens of deaths,” said teacher Mkrtchian. “But that doesn’t mean they are not to blame. The government is passing the buck. There is nothing surprising about that – it happens all the time here. We ordinary citizens are the ones who suffer.”

The World Bank is now taking an interest in the issue. Gevork Sarkisian, director of the bank’s programme for heating provision in Armenia, said that following talks with the government, his bank has allocated one million US dollars to assist with safety measures in Yerevan.

“The main aim of the programme is to test - ahead of implementation - the most effective and least environmentally harmful methods of heating multi-storey buildings,” said Sarkisian.

Lana Mshetsian and Tigran Mirzoian are freelance journalists in Yerevan.