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  April 25, 2002 atimes.com  

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WUNDERING KIND
Part 2: Games nations play
By Pepe Escobar

SINGAPORE AND BRUSSELS - Two months ago, the White House was deliriously happy with the official opening of the first new pipeline of the Caspian Pipeline Consortium – a joint venture including Russia, Kazakhstan, Oman, ChevronTexaco, ExxonMobil and a bunch of other minor players.

This US$ 2.65 billion pipeline links the enormous Tengiz oilfield in northwestern Kazakhstan to the Russian port of Novorossiysk, in the Black Sea: from there, the sky – i.e. the world market - is the limit. Bush II, according to the White House, is developing ``a network of multiple Caspian pipelines that also include the Baku-Tbilisi-Ceyhan, Baku-Supsa, and Baku-Novorossiyisk oil pipelines, and the Baku-Tbilisi-Erzurum gas pipeline´´. Translation: one of the key nodes in the American global petrostrategy is composed by Azerbaijan, Georgia and Turkey.

The pipeline consortium involved in Baku-Ceyhan, led by British Petroleum, is represented by the law firm Baker & Botts. The principal attorney is none other than Texan superstar James Baker – Secretary of State under Bush I and chief spokesman for the Bush II 2000 campaign when all gloves were off to shut down the Florida vote recount.




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