The Great Game for the Oil & Gas of the Caspian Region
by Christopher Bollyn
September 26, 2001
President Bush's "crusade" against the Taliban of Afghanistan has more to do
with control of the immense oil and gas resources of the Caspian Basin than with
"rooting our terrorism." Once again an American president from the Bush family
is leading Americans down an oil-rich Middle Eastern warpath against "enemies of
freedom and democracy."
The focus on religion-based terrorism serves to conceal important aspects of the
Central Asian conflict. President Bush's noble rhetoric about fighting for
justice and democracy is masking a less noble struggle for control of an
estimated $5 trillion of oil and gas resources from the Caspian Basin.
One of the material results of the elder Bush's Desert Storm campaign in 1991
was to secure access to the huge Rumaila oil field of southern Iraq, which was
accomplished by expanding the boundaries of Kuwait after the war. This allowed
Kuwait, a former British protectorate where American and British oil companies
are heavily invested, to double its prewar oil output.
The Trepca mine complex in Kosovo, one of the richest mines in Europe, was
seized last year by front companies for George Soros and Bernard Kouchner, two
members of the New World Order gang who devastated Serbia. A similar
geopolitical strategy, influenced by Zionist planners, to control the valuable
mineral resources of the Caspian Basin underlies the planned aggression against
Afghanistan, a Central Asian nation that occupies a strategic position
sandwiched between the Middle East, Central Asia and the Indian subcontinent.
Central Asia has enormous quantities of undeveloped oil resources including 6.6
trillion cubic meters of natural gas, waiting to be exploited. The former
Soviet republics of Uzbekistan and Turkmenistan are the two major gas producers
in Central Asia. Today, the only existing export routes from the area lead
through Russia. Investors in Caspian oil and gas are interested in building
alternative pipelines to Turkey and Europe, and especially to the rapidly
growing Asian markets. India, Iran, Russia and Israel are working on a plan to
supply oil and gas to south and south-east Asia through India but instability in
Afghanistan is raising a great threat to this effort.
Afghanistan lies squarely between Turkmenistan, home to the world's third
largest natural gas reserves, and the lucrative markets of the Indian
subcontinent, China and Japan. A memorandum of understanding has been signed to
build a 900-mile natural gas pipeline from Turkmenistan to Pakistan via
Afghanistan, but the ongoing civil war and absence of a stable government in
Afghanistan have delayed the project. Afghanistan was at the center of the
so-called "Great Game" in the 19th century when Imperial Russia and the British
Empire in India vied for influence. Today, its geographical position as a
potential route for oil and natural gas pipelines makes Afghanistan extremely
important to energy magnates seeking control of these precious resources.
Enron, a Texas-based gas and energy company, together with Amoco, British
Petroleum, Chevron, Exxon, Mobil and Unocal are all engaged in a multi-billion
dollar frenzy to extract the reserves of Azerbaijan, Kazakhstan, and
Turkmenistan, the three newly independent Soviet republics that border on the
Caspian Sea. An array of former cabinet members from the George H. Bush
administration has been actively involved in negotiations with the former Soviet
republics on behalf of the oil companies. The deal makers include James Baker,
Brent Scowcroft, John Sununu and, notably, Dick Cheney, now vice president.
THE ISRAELI CONNECTION
Turkmenistan and Azerbaijan are also closely allied with Israeli commercial
interests and Israeli military intelligence. In Turkmenistan, a "former"
Israeli intelligence agent, Yosef A. Maiman, president of Merhav Group of
Israel, is the official negotiator and policy maker responsible for developing
the energy resources of Turkmenistan.
"This is the Great Game all over," Maiman told the Wall Street Journal about his
role in furthering the "geopolitical goals of both the U.S. and Israel" in
Central Asia. "We are doing what U.S. and Israeli policy could not achieve -
controlling the product," he said.
"Those who control the oil routes out of Central Asia will impact all future
direction and quantities of flow and the distribution of revenues from new
production," said energy expert James Dorian in Oil & Gas Journal on Sept. 10.
Foreign business in Turkmenistan is dominated by Maiman's Merhav Group,
according to the Washington Report on Middle East Affairs (WRMEA). Maiman, who
was made a citizen of Turkmenistan by presidential decree, serves as
Turkmenistan's "official negotiator" for its gas pipeline, special ambassador,
and "right-hand man" for the "authoritarian" President Saparmurad Atayevich
Miyazov, a former Politburo member of the Central Committee of the Communist
Party of the Soviet Union.
The Merhav Group of Israel officially represents the Turkmen government and has
brokered all of the energy projects in Turkmenistan, contracts worth many
billions of dollars. Merhav has been contracted to modernize existing natural
gas infrastructure and will build new facilities in an oil refinery in the city
of Turkmenbashi on the Caspian Sea. Merhav refuses to disclose its sources of
financing. In keeping with Israeli political interests, Maiman's planned
pipelines bypass Iran and Russia. Maiman has said that he would have no
objection to dealing with Iran, "when and if Israeli policy allows it."
Iran has accused the United States of trying to keep regional pipelines from
passing through Iran. Creating a counterbalance to Iran's regional influence was
a cornerstone of the Clinton administration, which was concerned that Iran could
gain too much control over Caspian exports. "This is a common interest for the
U.S. and Israel," said Dr. Nimrod Novik, vice president of Merhav. "The primary
interest is to prevent the development of Turkish strategic dependence on Iran,
given the unique emerging strategic relationship between Turkey and Israel."
Russia and Turkmenistan are in a battle to conquer the Turkish gas market, and
the supplier that offers the best price will emerge as the winner. "This is a
great race," Maiman says, "Whoever takes Turkey first wins. Whoever comes second
will have lean years." Although the United States needs Russian assistance in
its campaign against Afghanistan, when I asked Alex Chorine of Caspian Investor
what kind of relationship existed between the Russian and Western/Israeli energy
companies doing business in the Caspian Basin, Chorine said, "They act as
enemies."
One of Maiman's proposed pipelines would bring Turkmenistan's gas and oil to
Turkey via Azerbaijan and Georgia. Maiman's Merhav Group is also involved in a
$100 million project that would reduce the flow of water to Iraq by diverting
water from the Tigris and Euphrates rivers to southeastern Turkey.
Israeli officials boast of having "excellent relations" with Azerbaijan, where
an Israeli company, Magal Security Systems, has a contract to provide security
at Baku airport. Magal is one of several Israeli companies that will "turn
Israel into a major player in Azerbaijan" by providing security for the 1,200
mile pipeline taking oil from the Caspian to the Turkish port of Ceyhan on the
Mediterranean Sea.
Enron, the biggest contributor to the Bush campaign of 2000, conducted the
feasibility study for a $2.5 billion trans-Caspian gas pipeline, which is being
built under a joint venture agreement signed in February 1999 between
Turkmenistan and two American companies, Bechtel and General Electric Capital
Services. Maiman acted as the intermediary between the Turkmenistan and the
U.S. firms, but won't discuss "his cut" or whether he will receive a stake in
the pipeline. The Merhav Group hired the Washington lobbying firm Cassidy &
Associates and spent several million dollars to "encourage" U.S. officials to
push for the trans-Caspian pipeline.
CRITICAL FOR WHOM?
During the Clinton administration, Secretary of Energy Bill Richardson and
"special adviser to the president" Richard Morningstan promoted the Baku-Ceyhan
pipeline, calling it "critical to the economic survival of Turkmenistan." The
relationship between Israel, Turkey and the United States is the major factor
for the selection of the Baku-Ceyhan route, which could be extended to bring oil
directly to energy-deficient Israel. Energy experts, however, question the
wisdom and expense of this route. Companies are under pressure from the United
States and Israel to invest in east-west pipelines, although most companies
would prefer cheaper north-south pipelines through Iranian territory, according
to WRMEA.
The U.S. firm Unocal was leading a pipeline project to bring Turkmenistan's
abundant natural gas through Afghanistan to the growing markets of Pakistan and
India, until the turmoil in Afghanistan led them to withdraw from the project in
1998. The planned pipeline would carry gas from the Turkmen Dauletabad fields,
among the world's largest, to Multan in Pakistan, with a planned extension to
India. The line from Dauletabad through Afghanistan is planned to transport 15
billion cubic feet of gas per year for 30 years. This pipeline is on hold until
the political and military situations in Afghanistan improve.
There is a second Unocal project to build a 1,030-mile oil pipeline called the
Central Asian Oil Pipeline Project, which would start at Chardzhou in
Turkmenistan linking Russia's Siberian oil field pipelines to Pakistan's Arabian
coast. This line could transport 1 million barrels a day of oil from other areas
of the former Soviet Union. It would run parallel to the gas line route through
Afghanistan and branch off in Pakistan to the Indian Ocean terminal in Ras Malan.
Before the sun set on the apocalyptic day that New York's gleaming twin towers
collapsed, the U.S. government had already decided to blame the attack on Osama
Bin Laden, the Saudi-born guerrilla leader, and the Taliban government of
Afghanistan which harbored him. Although the U.S. government did not present
evidence in support of its case against Bin Laden, Secretary of State Colin
Powell said on Sept. 23, "I think in the near future, we will be able to put out
a paper, a document, that will describe quite clearly the evidence that we have
linking him to this attack."
When it was reported that the Taliban might turn Bin Laden over to face justice,
the Bush administration said that surrendering Bin Laden would not prevent an
American-led attack on Afghanistan. An international plan to remove the
fundamentalist Islamic Taliban from power has been a subject of international
diplomatic discussions for months and was reportedly raised by India during the
Group of Eight summit in July in Genoa, Italy.
The Indian press reported in June that, "India and Iran will 'facilitate' U.S.
and Russian plans for 'limited military action' against the Taliban if the
contemplated tough new economic sanctions don't bend Afghanistan's
fundamentalist regime." The invasion plans described in the Indian press in
June may come to pass in October: "Tajikistan and Uzbekistan will lead the
ground attack with a strong military back up of the U.S. and Russian. Vital
Taliban installations and military assets will be targeted." The economic
reasons for the multinational assault against the Taliban were explained:
"Uzbekistan, Tajikistan, Kazakhstan, and Turkmenistan are threatened by the
Taliban that is aiming to control their vast oil, gas, and other resources by
bringing Islamic fundamentalists into power."