“There is no gas”

The Georgian-South Ossetian war also “shakes” Armenia

by Armen Hakobyan

Published: Saturday August 30, 2008

A common sight at gas stations throughout Armenia. The sign on the chair reads, “There isn’t any.”. Armen Hakobyan / Armenian Reporter

Yerevan - The Armenian Reporter's staff correspondent Armen Hakobyan explores the immediate consequences of the war in Georgia for Armenia.

"There is no gas." "There is none." These are the signs people are reading these days in gas stations in Yerevan and around Armenia. They are being forced to leave empty-handed, remembering the nightmares of the fuel-energy crisis in the beginning of the 90s. The situation in Georgia and the explosion of the bridge in the Tbilisi­-Gori section of the railway on August 16 has disrupted Armenia's regular movement of cargo.

"Yesterday I was able to fill up 10 liters of gas through the help of an acquaintance," said taxi driver Suren, on the morning of August 26. We had stopped in front of the gas station near the Davitashen Bridge. Kindling and small logs piled up a little further down the road caught my attention. Noticing the direction of my glance, the gas attendant said that they were for those going on picnics over the weekend. Putting it mildly, these days not many people are thinking about going on picnics.

Even with the fuel deficit, there are still a lot of cars on the streets of Yerevan. The reason is that a large number of vehicles run on propane. However, the crisis is never­the­less evident, mainly at gas stations. These days large gas stations such as Flash, Mika, and Ran Oil are operating. However, there are some restrictions here as well: up to 20 liters per vehicle accompanied by a prepaid corporate check. Some other filling stations are giving gas to only those who have debit cards. None of the gas stations is taking cash. As a result of this, people have been scrambling to find gas. A young man with an empty one-liter plastic soda bottle in his hand begs for a liter of gas, even at a high price, while the attendant brusquely repeats (probably for the seventieth time) "No, no, dear brother, I cannot, only with a coupon..."

Naturally this situation is causing dissatisfaction with drivers who have no checks. As a result, individual "entrepreneurs" are selling their coupons at double the price - instead of 450 drams ($1.50) per liter, the price of gas can jump as high as 900 drams ($3.00) a liter. At the gas station it is evident that those who have cars are panicking. Even those who do not need more than 5-6 liters daily are anxious to fill up with 30-40 liters of gas, in order to avoid further possible complications.

The fuel deficit in the country also caught the attention of the Armenian National Congress headed by Levon Ter-Petrossian, which came out with an announcement on August 25. "Today the government of the Republic is incapable of implementing crisis management, while even during the Karabakh war and the difficult years of the blockade, the state was able to stabilize similar situations." The statement continued to demand the ban of what it called a monopoly in fuel imports.

After the explosion of the railway bridge in Georgia, a rapid-response headquarters was set up, with Prime Minister Tigran Sarkisian at the helm. The activities of the headquarters are being coordinated by his aide Gagik Martirossian, who held ministerial positions in the 90s and therefore has experience with crisis management. The state initiated and regulated the import of essential goods (wheat, flour, gas, and diesel) by convoys of trucks and fuel tankers from Batumi and Iran. Armenian experts of the Southern Caucasus Railroad Company were quickly dispatched to Georgia to renovate the railway route which bypasses the exploded bridge in Gori. Transportation through this new railway link has restarted in the last couple of days.

Susanna Tonoyan, the press secretary of the Ministry of Transport told the Armenian Reporter that from August 8 to 26, Armenia exported 218 wagons of goods and imported 422 wagons of goods; 144 wagons of wheat, 13 of petrol, 54 of aviation fuel, 7 of diesel, 11 of fuel and 193 wagons of random goods. From August 26 to 27 another 130 wagons of goods were imported to Armenia, including 72 wagons of miscellaneous goods, 48 of wheat, and 10 wagons of fuel which, as the director of Flash Company Mushegh Elchian told the Armenian Reporter, is the 500 tons that belong to them and which they had been expecting for the past 10 days. We were also informed by Ms. Tonoyan that roughly 500 tons out of the overall 2,800 tons of petrol belonging to Armenia and 13 wagons out of 3,000 tons of wheat have already been loaded from Poti and are being transported to Armenia on the Georgian railway.