Georgia's disastrous attack on South Ossetia has given Russia a perfect excuse to roll back US control of Azerbaijan's oil supply
By Dilip Hiro
guardian.co.uk, Monday August 11 2008
"..... Already, the Pentagon had established its presence in Georgia and Azerbaijan. It posted its officers to these Caucasian republics to train Georgian and Azeri forces to guard the Baku-Tbilisi-Ceyhan (BTC) oil pipeline – connecting Baku, the source of oil, with the Mediterranean port of Ceyhan, in Turkey. Moreover, under guise of waging "war on terror", the Azeri government allowed the Pentagon to upgrade the Nasosnaya military airfield north of Baku. As I have discussed in my book Blood of the Earth, that gave the US greater flexibility in transporting troops and deploying its air power in the region......
On the American side, intent on monopolising the exploitation of the hydrocarbon resources of the Caspian Basin, the Clinton administration resolved to exclude Russian and Iranian oil companies from exploration and extraction. It succeeded. Yet, there was the task of delivering the crude oil to where it was needed – Europe. With their already-established pipelines leading to maritime terminals, Russia and Iran were well-placed to provide the transit facilities.
To exclude Russia and Iran even from this phase, Washington favoured the construction of the 1,090-mile Baku-Tbilisi-Ceyhan pipeline, even though it was twice as long as the alternative route of Baku-Tbilisi-Suspa, the Russian port on the Black Sea, and passes through a highly seismic landscape. The US government went on to grant $823m to Turkey for this project, amounting to more than a fifth of the total cost......"
By Dilip Hiro
guardian.co.uk, Monday August 11 2008
"..... Already, the Pentagon had established its presence in Georgia and Azerbaijan. It posted its officers to these Caucasian republics to train Georgian and Azeri forces to guard the Baku-Tbilisi-Ceyhan (BTC) oil pipeline – connecting Baku, the source of oil, with the Mediterranean port of Ceyhan, in Turkey. Moreover, under guise of waging "war on terror", the Azeri government allowed the Pentagon to upgrade the Nasosnaya military airfield north of Baku. As I have discussed in my book Blood of the Earth, that gave the US greater flexibility in transporting troops and deploying its air power in the region......
On the American side, intent on monopolising the exploitation of the hydrocarbon resources of the Caspian Basin, the Clinton administration resolved to exclude Russian and Iranian oil companies from exploration and extraction. It succeeded. Yet, there was the task of delivering the crude oil to where it was needed – Europe. With their already-established pipelines leading to maritime terminals, Russia and Iran were well-placed to provide the transit facilities.
To exclude Russia and Iran even from this phase, Washington favoured the construction of the 1,090-mile Baku-Tbilisi-Ceyhan pipeline, even though it was twice as long as the alternative route of Baku-Tbilisi-Suspa, the Russian port on the Black Sea, and passes through a highly seismic landscape. The US government went on to grant $823m to Turkey for this project, amounting to more than a fifth of the total cost......"
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