Caspian Sea Pipeline to Be Unveiled

[Synnical]

Associated Press
05.24.2005, 12:14 PM

http://www.forbes.com/home/feeds/ap/2005/05/24/ap2051666.html

Presidents and oil company executives will inaugurate a 1,100-mile pipeline Wednesday that will carry millions of gallons of crude from the landlocked Caspian to the Mediterranean - a much-needed alternative to Mideast energy resources.

Analysts say the $3.2 billion, U.S.-backed Baku-Ceyhan pipeline could also help bring stability to the troubled region. The Caspian is thought to contain the world's third-largest oil and gas reserves.

"This global project will completely change the economic situation in Azerbaijan, and in the political sense it will influence the rest of the Caucasus and Central Asia," said Vafa Guluzade, a former foreign affairs adviser to the Azerbaijani government.

Built by a consortium led by BP PLC, the pipeline runs from Azerbaijan through Georgia to the Turkish port of Ceyhan.

[matcom]

1. is this THE pipeline?

"carpet of gold, carpet of bombs..." and all that?

[denverbill]

4. No, different pipeline.

That ran from the Caspian down through Afghanistan and Pakistan to India. This runs from the Caspian to the Mediterranean, through Chechnya, and a couple other countries.

[Synnical]

10. Different, but kind of the same, I think

Correct me if I'm wrong . . .

http://www.israeleconomy.org/strategic/socor5.htm

Written September 27th, 2002.

You Can't Call This Pipeline A Pipedream Now
By Vladimir Socor

Ground was broken last week on construction work for the pipeline that will bring oil from the Caspian Sea directly to Western consumer countries. The presidents of Azerbaijan, Georgia and Turkey, along with American officials and the managers of some of the world's leading oil companies, gathered on September 18 near Azerbaijan's capital to inaugurate the construction of the Baku-Tbilisi (Georgia)-Ceyhan (Turkey) oil export pipeline. Next month, those same countries and Western partners are expected to launch construction work on an export pipeline for Caspian natural gas.

<snip>

Provided, of course, that the Caspian pipeline routes promote competition and diversification by circumventing Russia or Iran. These two countries are themselves among the leading energy exporters, and they promote international political agendas of their own. Routing the Caspian pipelines via Russia or Iran would substantially add to the energy export flows they already control. It would give them stronger economic and political leverage on Caspian producer countries, as well as on consumer countries downstream.

[Synnical]

11. And More

http://www.bakutoday.net/view.php?d=13477

Kazakhstan to export oil through US-backed Caspian pipeline

by Simon Ostrovsky 24/05/2005 20:52

British oil giant BP holds a 30 percent stake in the consortium running the pipeline. Other consortium members include Azerbaijan's state oil company SOCAR, Amerada Hess, ConocoPhillips, Eni, Inpex, Itochu, Statoil, Total, TPAO and Unocal.

[Lisa]

2. and yet, not everyone is impressed

"BAKU -- Tomorrow morning, amid expected fanfare at BP PLC's gleaming Sangachal terminal on Azerbaijan's Caspian Sea coast, crude oil will finally start to flow into one of the most significant and expensive pipelines ever built. It's a day that, once upon a time, was supposed to forever alter global oil markets, making prices fall at the gas station near you and finally lessening the West's reliance on the Organization of Petroleum Exporting Countries.

But after 10 years of hype, the Caspian oil balloon has burst. When the first crude begins its winding 1,760-kilometre path through mountain passes and around conflict zones on its way to Turkey's Mediterranean port of Ceyhan, few will be expecting it to have much of an impact on oil prices. Instead, the question that will be asked is: How much more oil is there, really? And how did so many get so badly snookered?"

(snip)

"But just as the crude is finally starting to creep westward, it's becoming clear that there's much, much less oil in the region than had been originally trumpeted. Instead of the 200 billion barrels predicted in 1995, most estimates now put the figure at somewhere between 17 and 32 billion, most of it on the other side of the Caspian from Azerbaijan, in the waters off Kazakhstan.

BTC will still bring a desperately awaited one million barrels a day to market once it hits full capacity in an estimated four years' time, but -- in providing perhaps 3 per cent of global supply -- it's going to do nothing to change the West's reliance on the House of Saud."

*note that world oil consumption is currently at 28 billion barrels per year -- and increasing.



http://www.theglobeandmail.com/servlet/ArticleNews/TPStory/LAC/20050524/ROILBAKU24/TPBusiness/?query=Caspian

[slackmaster]

3. How long until some separatist group blows it up?

:nuke:

[Zerex71]

5. 9/10/2001

Read up on the Caspian pipeline and the significance of that date.

[bemildred]

6. Kazakhstan to export oil through US-backed Caspian pipeline

Kazakhstan President Nursultan Nazarbayev said that his oil-rich former Soviet republic in Central Asia would pump large amounts of its crude through a four-billion-dollar US-backed pipeline to be inaugurated Wednesday.

"For us this route will be one of the main ways to supply world markets," Nazarbayev said at ceremony where he signed a raft of bilateral agreements with Azeri President Ilham Aliyev.

The Baku-Tbilisi-Ceyhan (BTC) pipeline, a US-backed energy initiative, will transform the Caucasus and Turkey into an energy bridge between the Caspian and the rest of the world.

But Kazakhstan's participation in the project has until now remained under question as it navigated choppy diplomatic waters between Washington and Moscow.

Turkish Press

[Gloria]

7. The Great Caspian Sea Adventure--Globe and Mail--SNOOKERED?

From the new World Media Watch up now at http://www.zianet.com/insightanalytical
Tomorrow at Buzzflash.com

A related article also on the 5 Caspian Sea countries (inc. Russia and Iran and what they are negotiating......)



2//The Globe and Mail, Canada Tuesday, May 24, 2005

http://www.theglobeandmail.com/servlet/ArticleNews/TPStory/LAC/20050524/ROILBAKU24/TPInternational/TopStories

THE GREAT CASPIAN SEA ADVENTURE

One of the biggest pipelines ever is set to turn on the taps in Azerbaijan... . After years of hype, the question is: How much oil is there, really?



By Mark MacKinnon

BAKU -- Tomorrow morning, amid expected fanfare at BP PLC's gleaming Sangachal terminal on Azerbaijan's Caspian Sea coast, crude oil will finally start to flow into one of the most significant and expensive pipelines ever built. It's a day that, once upon a time, was supposed to forever alter global oil markets, making prices fall at the gas station near you and finally lessening the West's reliance on the Organization of Petroleum Exporting Countries.



But after 10 years of hype, the Caspian oil balloon has burst. When the first crude begins its winding 1,760-kilometre path through mountain passes and around conflict zones on its way to Turkey's Mediterranean port of Ceyhan, few will be expecting it to have much of an impact on oil prices. Instead, the question that will be asked is: How much more oil is there, really? And how did so many get so badly snookered?


SNIP


But just as the crude is finally starting to creep westward, it's becoming clear that there's much, much less oil in the region than had been originally trumpeted. Instead of the 200 billion barrels predicted in 1995, most estimates now put the figure at somewhere between 17 and 32 billion, most of it on the other side of the Caspian from Azerbaijan, in the waters off Kazakhstan.



BTC will still bring a desperately awaited one million barrels a day to market once it hits full capacity in an estimated four years' time, but -- in providing perhaps 3 per cent of global supply -- it's going to do nothing to change the West's reliance on the House of Saud.



(MORE)

[Toots]

9. now put the figure at somewhere between 17 and 32 billion,

The world is currently using around eighty billion barrels a year and that is expected to rise to a hundred or a hundred and twenty over the next decade.

[Carolab]

20. Hey, nothing a little BIRD FLU PANDEMIC couldn't cure!

Or a few more terra attacks.

[Synnical]

16. Big Oil has been snookered?

If Shrub has promoted this, that would make sense. Being a failed oil business person, and all.

:evilgrin:

-Cindy in Fort Lauderdale

[cosmicdot]

8. pipeline from Baku to Ceyhan - check/done/complete

see Council on Foreign Relations' 1999, Caspian Sea Discourse Library
http://www.treemedia.com/cfrlibrary/library/library.html
http://www.treemedia.com/cfrlibrary/library/background/forsythemap.html

Pipeline Dreams chart, 2nd listing
http://www.treemedia.com/cfrlibrary/library/background/olcottmaps.html

~snip~ "From a strategic perspective, the first generation of pipeline development should proceed along a western route, notably the Baku-Ceyhan route. The challenge lies in putting together the broad alliance of governments and commercial entities that can secure that outcome." - Key Constraints to Caspian Pipeline Development: Status, Significance and Outlook - By Sheila N. Heslin, James A. Baker for Public Policy Paper, Working Paper
http://www.treemedia.com/cfrlibrary/library/pipelines/heslin.html

James A. Baker, Henry Kissinger, et al
at the US-Azerbaijan Chamber of Commerce
http://www.usacc.org/contents.php?cid=2

Mission Accomplished!

[hedgetrimmer]

12. a smoking good dupe...filled with amazing adventures in big $ and WAR

http://www.uskba.net/membership_list.htm
http://www.eia.doe.gov/emeu/cabs/caspian.html (Caspian Pipeline Consortium Project Map Unavailable)

how about some history?
http://www.unocal.com/uclnews/96htm/073096b.htm
http://british-columbia.ca.human-rights.org/Pipelineist... (part1)
http://www.ratical.org/ratville/CAH/pipestan2.html (part2)

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
The lines on the maps have been drawn up for years and the countries that have not fallen into the fold will be under falling bombs. The U.S. men and women will protect the U.$. intere$t$ with there lives while maintaining the freedom to sell oil to China. The rich will get richer, the poor and moralist will get war and we'll all pay dearly at the pump. O happy day.

link: http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=view_all&address=102x1497478

[Synnical]

13. Pipeline Politics

Not endorsing this site ... just educating myself.

http://www.uwec.edu/grossmzc/caspianpipes.html

There are four main proposed pipeline routes from the Caspian Basin region--each with their unique geographical and political problems. This page focuses on the political aspects of this multifaceted problem. For most of human history, this region has been a highly contested area. This was true in ancient times and it is true in present times. With the industrialized world's increasing dependence on oil and the discovery of vast reserves in the Caspian Sea, political tension has only intensified.

<snip>

The U.S. State Department under President William J. Clinton called the Baku-Ceyhan oil pipeline (also known as Baku-Tbilisi-Ceyhan, or BTC) a "cornerstone" of its foreign policy for the Caspian region. The current Bush administration remains equally supportive of the proposed pipeline.

<snip>

While the U.S. argued for free markets, it set about securing economic and political control over much of Central Asia. Turkmenistan, irritated by Russian measures to divert its oil without adequate compensation, gladly agreed to connect its existing oil rigs with those of Kazakstan. The rest of the Unocal-proposed pipeline, however, suffered from a myriad roadblocks. Afghanistan in particular was fraught with corruption and age-old warlord squabbling. The U.S. sought assistance from Afghanistan's most stable regime, the Islamic fundamentalist Taliban, which seized power in 1996. The U.S. provided help to the Taliban in hopes it would establish some sort of control in the war-torn region. But the Taliban also gave assistance to extremist groups such as Osama bin Laden's al-Qaida. When al-Qaida agents destroyed two U.S. embassies in Africa in 1998, Washington lost its patience with the Taliban. In his 1998 testimony to Congress, the Unocal vice president expressed disappointment.

In October 2001, after al-Qaida attacked the Twin Towers and the Pentagon, U.S. forces invaded Afghanistan and, with the help of the ethnic-Tajik Northern Alliance, set out to destroy the Taliban. Inserted as interim Afghan president was Pashtun leader Hamid Karzai, a former top advisor to Unocal who had negotiated with the Taliban in an effort to construct a Central Asian pipeline. Karzai's would be a tough road to hoe, as the U.S. continued to fund (and still does fund) local warlords to snuff out al-Qaida cells.

[Rose Siding]

14. Close bases. check. Build more refineries

Ka-ching!

[MisterP]

15. another Brzezinski ring-around-the-rosy 'round the Black and

Caspian Seas.
think ally Pustulio will bring another pipeline through to ally Romania?

[hedgetrimmer]

17. bump-animo

[Synnical]

18. Give us a kick then, won't cha?

Don't stop! :)

[Synnical]

19. Wolfowitz and the World Bank and the Caspian Sea

I knew there was something that triggered a memory . . .

http://billmon.org/archives/001753.html

Prescient - Satire alert!

May 29, 2005: After days of study, the World Bank’s Office of Really Special Plans releases a 500-page report entitled, “A Really New Strategy for Securing the Realm: Promoting Democracy and Energy Security in the Middle East.” It recommends the World Bank finance the construction of an enormous bridge and a pipeline connecting the oil-rich republic of Turkmenistan with staunch U.S. ally Azerbaijan on the other side of the Caspian Sea.



:D

[Supersedeas]

29. Next, we will regain stability and security from the EBIL elk in AL

Bush has a plan that Rove will sell you.

[Moderator]

21. kick to combine

[Up2Late]

22. Caspian oil pipeline set to open (BBC News)

(Now, Finally, OIL and Gas prices will fall dramatically. NOT!)

Tuesday, 24 May, 2005, 22:34 GMT 23:34 UK

Caspian oil pipeline set to open

By Emma Simpson
BBC News, Baku, Azerbaijan

Oil is set to begin flowing from the Caspian Sea direct to the Mediterranean for the first time. A ceremony will held in Azerbaijan to open the 1,600km (1,000-mile) pipeline which passes through Georgia to the Turkish port of Ceyhan. The $3.6bn pipeline has been built by a consortium of oil companies led by BP.

It has been more than 10 years in the making with much argument and controversy, but the pipeline's valves will finally be opened. The oil will come on shore from the rich oil fields of the Caspian Sea, a region once dominated by the Soviet Union. Up to a million barrels a day will eventually be heading directly west, gushing underneath miles of rugged terrain.

Although the oil is just a fraction of world demand, for energy hungry countries like the US, which is seeking to diversify supplies, this is a strategically important non-Russian, non-Middle Eastern source of oil. But it is not without risk. The pipeline runs through the volatile terrain of the Caucasus and will require constant surveillance to prevent it from attack.

There have been protests too about the potential impact on the environment. The route may be far from ideal, but BP and the rest of this consortium are hoping the pipeline will produce a new and steady supply of oil for Western markets in the form of a new direct link from the landlocked Caspian Sea.

(Photos and more info at link above)

[Old and In the Way]

23. Any takers as to when the 1st disruption occurs?

I'll bet it happens within 3 months.

[olddad56]

24. I'll take that bet, I think less than a month.

[TexasLawyer]

25. How convenient...

just on the eve of our air strikes on Iran. Nice to know that our Strategic Petroleum Reserve is all filled up, the Saudis are pumping away, and we have this nice new energy source coming on stream.

That George Bush, he considers every angle. (Except little things like what happens when Iranians come pouring into Iraq to extract revenge on our military. But they wouldn't do that, would they?)

[hedgetrimmer]

26. how deep does the rabbit hole go?

http://www.uskba.net/membership_list.htm
http://www.eia.doe.gov/emeu/cabs/caspian.html (Caspian Pipeline Consortium Project Map Unavailable)

how about some history?
http://www.unocal.com/uclnews/96htm/073096b.htm
http://british-columbia.ca.human-rights.org/Pipelineistan.html (part1)
http://www.ratical.org/ratville/CAH/pipestan2.html (part2)

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
The lines on the maps have been drawn up for years and the countries that have not fallen into the fold will be under falling bombs. The U.S. men and women will protect the U.$. intere$t$ with there lives while maintaining the freedom to sell oil to China. The rich will get richer, the poor and moralist will get war and we'll all pay dearly at the pump. O happy day.

[hedgetrimmer]

27. bump fiesta!

[Dover]

28. Giant Caspian oil pipeline opens

Giant Caspian oil pipeline opens




Oil is set to flow from the Caspian Sea direct to the Mediterranean for the first time after a $3.6bn (£2bn) pipeline opened on Wednesday.


Starting in Azerbaijan, the 1,600km (1,000 mile) pipeline will pass through Georgia to the Turkish port of Ceyhan.
The project has taken more than 10 years to finish and will unlock one of the world's biggest energy reserves.

It has not been without controversy, however, and there have been protests about the impact on the environment. Some demonstrators were beaten and arrested last Saturday, with Azeri authorities saying that they acted because the protest was too close to the pipeline.

Wednesday's inauguration at the Sangachal oil terminal near Baku was attended by presidents from Azerbaijan, Kazakhstan, Georgia and Turkey.

The pipeline has been an international effort and was built by a consortium led by UK oil giant BP, which has a 30% stake. Other consortium members include Azerbaijan's state oil company Socar, Amerada Hess, ConocoPhillips, Eni, Inpex, Itochu, Statoil, Total, TPAO and Unocal.

..snip..

The BBC's Emma Simpson said from Baku that for energy-hungry countries such as the US the pipeline was a strategically important non-Russian, non-Middle Eastern source of oil. ..cont'd

http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/business/4577497.stm

[Synnical]

30. British lawmaker: Iraq war was for oil

http://english.aljazeera.net/NR/exeres/AC9B68BD-9853-494D-AB7D-A5EF74C46694.htm

Saturday 21 May 2005, 1:37 Makka Time, 22:37 GMT

Labour politician and former UK environment minister Michael Meacher has slammed Prime Minister Tony Blair and US President George Bush for starting a war, he says, to secure oil interests.

. . .

When asked by Aljazeera.net whether the war in Iraq was about oil he said: "The connection is 100%. It is absolutely overwhelming."

Meacher connected the wars in Iraq with a desire by US and UK interests to dominate oil supplies in times of increasing market volatility. He also thought the war was designed to pressure Saudi Arabia, the world's biggest oil supplier.

. . .

"It was principally, totally and comprehensively to do with oil," Meacher continued. "This was about assuming control over the Middle East and over Iraq, the second largest producer and also over Saudi Arabia next door. It was about securing as much as possible of the remaining supplies of oil and also over the Caspian basin, which of course is Afghanistan."