CASPIAN OIL IN THE REGIONAL ECONOMIC AND WORLD POLITICAL CONTEXTS

Abstract

In May 2005, a fairly pompous ceremony in Baku marked the filling of the Azeri stretch of the Baku-Tbilisi-Ceyhan pipeline (BTC)with oil. A lot of high flowing words were said as the oil reached Georgia and Turkey. In November, the wave approached the shores of the Mediterranean. Those who spoke at the final celebrations in Ceyhan were convinced that the pipeline would radically improve the economic and political situation of all the local countries, primarily Azerbaijan, Georgia, and Turkey, and would make them more stable and secure. After a while, however, the emotions aroused by the inflated expectations subsided under the pressure of more rational assessments of the geopolitical and regional changes brought about by the “project of the century.” The continued prosperity of America and the states of the “golden billion” depends on raw materials supplied by other countries, their own resources being fairly limited. This explains the zeal with which the United States and its allies are trying to gain access to the natural riches of others. The methods are well known liberal reforms and privatization of state enterprises. This started back in the 1990s when the downfall of the Soviet Union triggered a re-division of the world. The struggle for non-renewable energy sources was rekindled, while its center shifted from the Middle East to the former Soviet republics on the Caspian shores.
 The United States, however, has not abandoned its attempts to punish those Mid-Eastern oil producers who ignored the orders of the only superpower. In 2003, under flimsy pretexts, Britain and America declared a war on Iraq, one of the OPEC founders with a key role to play in price formation on the oil market. It was at the same time that the U.S. branded the Islamic Republic of Iran first a “rogue country” and then part of the “axis of evil” to toughen up American sanctions. In the 1990s, American oil companies gained access to Caspian oil as an alternative to Mid-Eastern oil and the oil produced by the OPEC countries.