from BBC News:
Azerbaijan's President Ilham Aliev said that "this pipeline first of all will help solve economic and social problems" but also will play a role in "strengthening peace and security in the region."
- - - - -
The Caspian project is not without risk, however, as the pipeline runs through the volatile Caucasus and will require constant surveillance to prevent it from attack.
- - - - -
Some demonstrators were beaten and arrested last Saturday, with Azeri authorities saying that they acted because the protest was too close to the pipeline.
- - - - -
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. *
*also known as Cheney's Energy Task Force.
BBC News - Giant Caspian oil pipeline opens
AsiaTimes - Pipeline-istan's biggest game begins
excerpt:
Azerbaijan, Georgia and Turkey were all desperate to finish BTC on time. Turkey owes a fortune to the International Monetary Fund. Georgia survives thanks largely to American handouts. Azerbaijan at least set up a state oil fund to use oil revenues to the benefit of future generations. But very few Azeris believe in the corporate myth that BTC will enrich them. Real life can be found less than a kilometer from downtown Baku: huge families crammed in Soviet-style communal apartments with scarce water and electricity. Azerbaijan could easily be pinned down as a land of rickety Ladas and Volgas crisscrossed by an armada of white BP 4x4s with satellite dishes on top - which allow the headquarters either in London or Baku to immediately locate all "troops" anywhere in the volatile Caucasus. The only other flourishing industry in the Caucasus, apart from oil, is kidnapping. Not to mention Kristina, the top belly-dancer at the Karavanserai, the favorite restaurant of the oil oligarchy, who is in a class by herself.
In Georgia the obstacles were more complex than in Azerbaijan. Thus the "Rose Revolution" of late 2003, getting rid of Edward Shevardnadze to the benefit of young, photogenic, American-educated and American-aligned Mikhail Saakashvili. The small matter of defending BTC from attacks of alleged al-Qaeda-related Chechens holed up in the Georgian mountains remains. But at least protection at the end of BTC in Ceyhan in Turkey is guaranteed: it's not a coincidence that the pipeline ends right next door to the massive American airbase at Incirlik.
previously:
Imperial Design
American Troops: a Russian perspective
Not Quite a Dream Team
Georgia 2001
The Global Strategy Group
Georgia in the Crunch
See also:
The Baku Ceyhan Campaign
Friends of the Earth: Baku-Ceyhan Oil Pipeline - Caucasus Region
Amnesty International UK: The Baku-Tbilisi-Ceyhan Pipeline Project
No comments:
Post a Comment