Wed 25 May 2005 06:51:53 AM PDT · by Destro · 12 replies · 640+ views
The Christian Science Monitor ^ | May 25, 2005 | Yigal Schleifer
Posted on 08/09/2008 7:48:21 AM PDT by flyfree
“Russian fighter jets targeted the the major Baku-Tbilisi-Ceyhan (BTC) oil pipeline which carries oil to the West from Asia but missed,”
That doesn’t sound good...
They missed the pipeline? Doesn’t say much for the ability of the Russian Air Force to hit targets.
And those pilots who missed have probably already been shot.
The Caspian Basin is a place of intense competition, with the US, Russia and China all vying for a stronger foothold. In July, the US$4 billion Baku-Tbilisi-Ceyhan (BTC) pipeline was inaugurated. The BTC pumps Caspian Sea oil to the Turkish Mediterranean, bypassing Russia and Iran. It should supply 1 million barrels of oil per day by 2009. It passes through the Georgian capital, Tbilisi, and also runs rather close to South Ossetia.
BP, formerly British Petroleum, has a 30.1 percent stake in the pipeline. The pipeline was commissioned by a BP-led consortium that includes energy companies from the US, Norway, Turkey, Azerbaijan, Japan, France and Italy. The BTC is a key to Western energy security. Upsetting Georgia - a major player in this energy security - by allowing South Ossetia to declare independence and be internationally recognized would be risky.
http://www.outsidethebeltway.com/archives/2008/08/kosovo_and_south_ossetia/
The Georgian Foreign Ministry reported that Russian aircrafts have completely destroyed the harbor of Poti, in the immediate vecinity of Supsa, a vital oil terminal.
Supsa is vital for Europe, especially since the Baku-Tbilisi-Ceyhan pipeline (the only alternative route to the Russian oil and gas pipelines) has been disrupted on August 6 in Turkey by the Kurdish militia PKK. Since then, oil transports have been rerouted from Tbilisi to Supsa.
A hit would have seriously broadened the impact of this battle. Could it have been a bluff?
This is war.War against Oil is bid to race prices back up to cripple the US and the west.
Maybe they just wanted to send a message...
... besides...they probably want to steal the pipeline intact.
A bluff? ... Sort of. It was a message being sent to Europe that Russia can cut your fuel supply if you aid or abet these Gerogian ‘separatists’. Russia has become a net energy exporter and as such holds many more cards than we energy dependent nations. That’s what the democrat party has sought to accomplish and it is now the reality. Russia doesn’t want to wait for us to become a net energy exporter so they’re exploiting a vulnerability of Europe to take greater control over supply lines.
Thats what I see happening!
McCain wasn’t though
This is a major pipeline, constructed over several years at a cost of many billions of dollars.
The Russian attempt to destroy it will more than make many countries angry. A lot of countries have a stake in that pipeline.
The ‘miss’ might be a warning.
I’m sorry, but to think that the Russian pilots, with air superiority, “missed” a large, unarmored, stationary, long target...just doesn’t add up. I know it may be humorous to think that their pilots are that unskilled, but that would be humoring ourselves. I firmly believe that if it had been their intention to actually *hit* the pipeline, they’d not only would have hit it, they’d have shredded it along a great length to make sure that it could not be repaired easily.
Europeans better stand up and take friggin’ notice. With the natgas and oil pipelines into Europe, the fears of the Russian Bear turning the screws whenever they see fit, are now on full display to the world.
Imagine what would happen if the natural gas flow disappeared in the teeth of a bitter winter?????
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Pipeline politics give Turkey an edge: Caspian oil pipeline to Turkey's coast opens Wednesday
I found it hard to believe myself. There is another possibility, they never attacked it in the first place.
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