|
Greasing the Skids to War
By William C. Carlotti, Torrington and Vermont
I would like to add my two cents to the discussion of the issues of war and peace with Iraq by focusing on the oily economic underbelly as President Bush greases the skids for war in the area. At the heart of the oily economics is the Caspian Sea, landlocked between Azerbaijan, Iran, Kazakhstan, Russia and Turkmenistan. Since the breakup of the Soviet Union in 1991, the Caspian Sea and the surrounding region has become the focus of major international capital investment and competition because of its huge oil and natural gas reserves.
The Caspian region contains six separate identified hydrocarbon basins, although most of its oil and gas reserves have not yet been developed. There are 10 billion barrels of proven oil reserves, and geo-surveys consider that the region’s possible oil reserves could yield another 233 billion barrels. In addition, proven natural gas reserves in the Caspian Sea region are estimated at 170 trillion cubic feet, while geo-surveys consider natural gas reserves in the Caspian region could yield another 293 trillion cubic feet.
Questions surrounding the legal status of the oil and gas deposits in the Caspian region have hindered but not stopped development of these mineral resources. The main difference and conflict between the five countries bordering the Caspian Sea lies in the uneven geological distribution of potential oil and gas sources in the region—a matter which is exacerbated by the fact that the ownership and development rights of the Sea were divided and governed by the international treaties of 1921 and 1940 between the then Soviet Union and Iran. Adding to these treaty and geological issues is the action of the United States government in 1975 and again in 1977 to forbid U.S. companies from developing oil resources and pipelines with Iran after Conoco had entered into such an agreement. Conoco withdrew from the development of these resources and they went, instead, to the French company TotalFinaElf, which also has vital oil interests in Syria, Libya and Iran.
In a November 28, 2001 press release President G.W. Bush stated: "I congratulate Russia, Kazakhstan, and Oman, and their consortium partners, for the commissioning of the Caspian Pipeline Consortium (CPC). U.S. firms, notably ChevronTexaco and ExxonMobil, have played leading roles in this project. These facilities represent a culmination of years of effort … The CPC project advances my Administration’s National Energy Policy [italics added] by developing a network of multiple Caspian pipelines that also includes the Baku-Tbilisi-Ceyhan, Baku-Supsa, and Baku-Novorossiysk oil pipelines and the Baku-Tbilisi-Erzurum gas pipeline …"
The $2.6 billion, 1,510-kilometer pipeline built by the CPC runs from oilfields operated by Tengiz Chevron Oil at Tengiz in western Kazakhstan to the Russian port of Novorossiysk on the eastern shore of the Black Sea. The president’s mention of the Baku-Supsa oil pipeline is a reference to a pipeline contemplated to link Baku and the oil fields in Azerbaijan to Supsa in Georgia on the eastern shore of the Black Sea. Likewise, the Baku-Novorossiysk pipeline will transport oil from the same fields to Novorossiysk in Russia, which is also on the eastern shore of the Black Sea.
As a matter of interest, Condoleezza Rice, assistant to the president for national security affairs on the National Security Council, served on the board of directors of CPC partner Chevron in between her service in the senior Bush administration and the current G.W. Bush administration. Chevron had christened a 136,000-ton deadweight, double-hulled tanker ship in commemoration of her service, but has since renamed it after receiving unwanted public attention.
In spite of the conflicts and unresolved issues, on August 1, 2002 the Baku-Tbilisi-Ceyhan Pipeline Company (BTC Co.) was founded at a document signing ceremony in London, marking the beginning of Phase II of the project by the British Petroleum-led Azerbaijan International Oil Consortium (AIOC) that started with the $16 billion development of the Azeri-Chiag-Gunashil oil fields in Azerbaijan. A United States company, Bechtel, will be the main contractor for engineering, procurement and construction of the 1,750-kilometer, $5 billion pipeline. In addition, a 900-kilometer gas pipeline will also be constructed between Baku, Tbilisi and Erzurum, terminating in Turkey’s Anatolia region.
ChevronTexaco and MobilExxon refused to participate in the BTC Co. with British Petroleum, even though they are part of the AIOC. At a conference on the BTC pipeline attended by U.S. government officials, Chevron vice chairman Richard Matzke declared that pipeline projects required an incremental approach grounded in commercial realities, not perceived geopolitical imperatives. He added, "Oil cannot be pulled through a pipeline, but can only be pushed."
Matzke was referring to the fact that the oil pipeline at the "pushed" end in Baku, Azerbaijan will require a 50-yard wide swath through the warring Chechnya/ Georgia area, alongside the warring Armenian/ Azerbaijan border area, and the hostile northeast Kurdish area of Turkey. In addition, this pipeline will compete with the northern route already established by CPC and sponsored by Russia. Even though U.S. ally Turkey has things under control at Ceyhan (the "pulled" end), Matzke and company don’t want to be involved in what will be required at the Baku end. The United States has already committed Special Operations forces to Azerbaijan in anticipation of the military operations that will be necessary.
According to Time Magazine and as matter of interest, BTC pipeline contractor Bechtel Company was a shipbuilding partner with John McCone prior to his appointment as head of the CIA under John F. Kennedy; Casper Weinberger, former Secretary of Defense, came from Bechtel; and so did George Shultz. Bechtel built one of the first of the world’s long oil pipelines in Saudi Arabia—1,068 miles long—and is currently in the midst of building a planned community for 200,000 people in Jubail, Saudi Arabia, where they have also built a steel factory and factories that make chemicals, fertilizers and plastics.
Aside from those nations that are the direct source of huge deposits of gas and oil, there is the matter of Afghanistan, where the United States has already started military operations and affected a regime change. According to a September 2001 fact sheet published by the United States Department of Energy, "Afghanistan’s significance from an energy standpoint stems from its geographical position as a potential route for oil and natural gas exports from Central Asia [i.e., the Caspian Sea] to the Arabian Sea. This potential includes the possible construction of oil and natural gas export pipelines through Afghanistan, which was under consideration in the mid 1990s. The idea has since been undermined by Afghanistan’s instability". In fact, Unocal/ Delta and the Argentine company Bridas/ Amoco had entered into negotiations with the Taliban regime beginning in 1997, as Mobil and Monument Oil signed an oil exploration agreement with Turkmenistan in anticipation of pipeline construction.
|
|
