Posted on 02/25/2005 9:03:44 AM PST by nypokerface
TBILISI (AFP) - A top US official warned that privatisation of Georgia's main gas pipeline, which can thus fall into the Russian gas giant Gazprom's hands, could affect pipeline projects that link the resource-rich Caspian region to the West through Georgia.
The United States had worked for Georgia's energy independence for years and "categorically oppose any action that would impair this process," Stephen Mann, US presidential advisor on the Caspian region, told the 24 Saati newspaper.
In case the main pipeline was sold to Gazprom, "it would hinder the realisation of the Shah-Deniz project" that would link Azerbaijan's massive Shah-Deniz field to Turkey through Georgia, Mann said.
"We explain to the Georgian authorities that such decisions should be made with great caution and deliberation," Mann said, commenting Georgian President Mikhail Saakashvili's recent statement that Tbilisi was holding talks with Gazprom over the main pipeline's sale.
However, the Shah-Deniz project would go ahead even if Gazprom bought the pipeline, Mann soothed, adding that the United States did not oppose Georgia's close ties to Gazprom in principle, as "Gazprom takes up an important part in Georgia's energy sector."
The region is due for several major projects, including one led by oil majors BP and Statoil, to build a gas pipeline running from Baku, through neighbouring Georgia, to the northern Turkish city of Erzurum.
That pipeline is expected to cost 3.2 billion dollars. BP and its partners in the consortium gave their formal approval for the project earlier this year, despite fears that Turkish demand was too weak to make it viable.
A separate US-backed oil pipeline, being built at a cost of 2.9 billion dollars (2.5 billion euros), will pump up to one million barrels of crude a day from Azerbaijan through Georgia to the Turkish Mediterranean port of Ceyhan.
Georgia is exclusively reliant on Russia for gas supplies and has for years struggled to pay its debts.
Ping!
So in this case America is against privatization, eh?
It's capitalism only if the right companies are the purchasing agents, otherwise, it's worrying.
Translation, "We know what's good for you and you'll do as your told children. Now go act like you're in charge while we think for you."
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