Posted on 04/10/2002 4:40:37 PM PDT by a_Turk
The coming Caspian oil boom could break the stranglehold of Persian Gulf countries, and the Saudi-dominated cartel OPEC, on the world's petroleum supplies. But it threatens to make Russia the master of world oil markets. In USs view, there is a problem: Russia controls the only means of transporting Caspian oil to the world-the Transneft pipeline networkworth billions of dollars in transit fees.
"No one in Washington is ready to accept that Moscow will control the world's oil tap", says Sergei Kazyannov of the Institute of National Security Studies.
US oil majors have championed two alternate routes, but until recently both have been impossible to build due to regional instability.
One was through Afghanistan. With US forces in the area, the time for this line may have arrived, says Nazib Baykov of the Institute of World Economy and International Relations .The other was from Azerbaijan to Turkey, which was stymied by the Armenia-Azerbaijan war.
Last month US forces began arriving in Georgia. This June, Western oil majors will begin work on the $3-billion Baku-Ceyhan line, and Russia's control of Caspian oil will become a fading fact.
That seems to be a fallacious statement. With the Caspian oil flowing, a splintering OPEC, and the eventual ouster of the Castro-friendly Venezuelan president, it seems like it is becoming a buyers market.
As far as Turkey having leverage, why not? Why would we fear that? Greater prosperity in Turkey strengthens Turkey's democratic tendencies. Not likely mullah-supported petty tyrants will rake in all the profits there.
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