Azerbaijan, Kazakhstan and Turkmenistan have become "independent." They all border on different segments of the Caspian Sea. The new governments are not only pro-capitalist but are the virtual playthings of Amoco, Exxon, Mobil, Texaco and British Petroleum.

    These governments have provided huge concessions—that is, property rights—to the biggest imperialist oil monopolies. In Soviet times this oil would have been used to meet the energy needs of the peoples of the Soviet Union.

    The Soviet Union is gone and the central government in Russia has spent the last seven years trying to impose capitalism on its population. Industrial production in Russia has dropped by 80 percent since 1991. In Azerbaijan it has dropped by more than 50 percent.

    The people are getting poorer, much poorer, quickly. But not all the people. A very narrow layer of bourgeois elements have sold their country's vast resources to foreign imperialists who promise prosperity but have succeeded only in looting the natural resources and treasuries that were built up during 80 years of Soviet rule.

    Now as these same oil companies—based in various capitalist countries—learn that oil deposits located under the Caspian Sea may amount to as much as 200 billion barrels worth $4 trillion, they are embarking on a new era of dangerous competition and piracy.

    Capitalist competition over a prize this big has historically led to fierce rivalry and even war. This pattern took an enormous toll on the peoples of the region prior to 1917. Only the socialist revolution and Soviet power allowed them to develop their economies and cultures free from foreign capitalist domination.

World: South Asia

Trans-Afghan pipeline suspended;

Turkmenistan is keen to export its huge gas reserves;

    The United States oil and gas company, Unocal, has called a halt to plans to build a $2 billion pipeline through Afghanistan following the US air attacks on southern Afghanistan and the Sudan.

    The pipeline had been designed to link a vast gas field in eastern Turkmenistan to Pakistan through Afghan territory - one of the most ambitious schemes to unlock central Asia's energy reserves for the Asian and Western markets.

    The BBC Central Asia correspondent says the news will come as a severe blow to Turkmenistan, which is desperate to get its huge gas reserves out to market.

    A Unocal spokeswoman said the company had no plans to cancel the project but she admitted it was far from clear when it would start again. The company will be meeting with its six foreign partners to discuss the situation.

    Ever since a consortium to build the pipeline was set up 10 months ago, it struggled to achieve funding targets, hampered by the internal conflict and instability that has continued to plague Afghanistan.

    The major problem was that with no internationally recognized government in power in Afghanistan, no external financing could be forthcoming.

Source BBC News: http://news.bbc.co.uk/hi/english/world/south_asia/newsid_156000/156497.stm

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VP Eyed Oil in Caspian Region
Dick Cheney's Pipe Dream
  by Geoffrey Gray

    American Special Forces troops may have begun moving on Afghanistan late this week, but American special interests started jockeying for position in the region years before. Control of the landlocked nation is key to exploiting the nearby oil reserves of the Caspian Sea—a fact not lost on Vice President Dick Cheney, in his previous incarnation as CEO of energy giant Halliburton.

    The man who would one day help conduct a war in Central Asia told a 1998 crowd at the right-wing Cato Institute about the black gold that lay beneath the waters there and the importance of teasing it from the politically volatile countries. "The good Lord didn't see fit to put oil and gas only where there are democratic regimes friendly to the United States," Cheney said. He condemned the U.S. sanctions placed on potentially oil-rich countries like Azerbaijan, Iran, Iraq, and Libya.

    "You've got to go where the oil is," he told another audience that year. Halliburton has continued to do just that. This spring, the company signed a major contract with the State Oil Company of Azerbaijan to develop a 6000-square-meter marine base to support offshore oil construction in the Caspian Sea, the Voice has learned. The base will be used to assist Halliburton's catamaran crane vessel, the Qurban Abbasov, in upcoming offshore pipe laying and subsea activities, according to a statement the company released May 15.

    Halliburton employs over 100,000 workers deployed in over 130 countries. Its interest in the Caspian would not be out of the ordinary.

    But as the war on terrorism in Afghanistan continues, some see Cheney's past and present connections as a conflict of interest. Biting his lip, Cheney sold his Halliburton shares after taking office. He accepted a resigning bonus of $1,451,398 and over $13 million in stock, with more in options, which he eventually dispensed to charities of his choosing.

    That hasn't satisfied his critics. "It's a scandal, sure, but it's business as usual for Halliburton," says Pratap Chatterjee, a former Caspian research analyst for Project Underground, a nonprofit that monitors the oil and gas industry. "Cheney wasn't paid big bucks for his knowledge of the oil industry or his business skills. It's his political contacts. He knows who to call, on a first name basis."

    Neither Cheney nor Halliburton responded to Voice requests for comment.

This page was created Oct. 9, 2001 Revised January 8, 2002 Copyright © 2001 CobWebz

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