Energy in Armenia which maintains a monopoly over Armenia's natural gas market. Gazprom wholly owns a crucial 24-mile section of the pipeline which Armenia surrendered in exchange for natural gas supplies from Russia at prices well below the European average until 2009. According to an analyst, Armenia "effectively bargained away its future prospects for energy sources in return for cheaper prices now." While Armenia could diversify its gas supply, with control of the Iran-Armenia gas pipeline, Gazprom now controls the competitors' supply. In 2009 Armenia was importing 1-1.5 million cubic meters of Iranian natural gas, paying for this by electricity exports. In 2010
Gazprom Neft Messoyakhaneftegas, an equally owned joint venture with TNK-BP, holds the licenses for both blocks with Gazprom Neft as operator. The recoverable C1+C2 reserves of both blocks total 620 million tonnes of primarily heavy oil. The fields were discovered in the 1980s and are the most northern-located onshore Russian fields. The Messoyakha oil and gas fields are located on the Gydan Peninsula in the Tazovsky District of the Yamalo-Nenets Autonomous Area - an Arctic climate zone with undeveloped infrastructure. By 2020 the Messoyakha fields are expected to be producing 8 mln tonnes per year with the first million produced by 2016.