POLITICS OF OIL - RECENT EXAMPLE (1)
The New York Times editorial of 9/13/95 (by Thomas Friedman) summarizes the heated debate among Russia, Azerbaijan, Georgia, Turkey and the multinational oil companies regarding the direction of the pipeline, which is to transport oil from the new oil fields in the Baku region of the Caspian Sea to the major oil refineries around the world. The complexity of the situation is illustrated below using a map published on July 17 in Business Week (p. 52). There are two main issues, both related to the trajectory of the pipelines from the oil fields of Tengiz (Kazakhstan) and Baku (Azerbaijan). One pipeline will take the Tengiz oil across Russia to the Black Sea and this issue seems to have been resolved. The other issue is the route and the port of destination of the second pipeline, for the Azerbaijani oil. Several alternatives have been discussed here (see map), including a southern corridor through Iran.
For an update on this evolving situation, see USA Today of October 30, 1997 (p. 11A). For a recent geopolitical analysis, see The New York Times of November 10, 1997 (op-ed page).