In the configuration of Central Asia, China, Russia energy, China is increasing its geo-economic Influence but Russia remains the main military-strategic power.
Continue reading →Russia began Turkish Stream construction this month without even a sales contract in place for Turkey to accept the gas. The European Union is unsympathetic to Turkish Stream, which is Russia’s last-minute replacement for the cancelled South Stream project that … Continue reading →
Russia is gambling big with its Turkish Stream problem. Gazprom is preparing to begin work on the Turkish Stream pipeline without there being an Russian-Turkish intergovernmental agreement in place. The Japanese firm Saipem, which Russia has been paying for months … Continue reading →
U.S. President Barack Obama’s appearance on The Colbert Report this week confirmed that he has no qualms about leaving Canada in the lurch in current global energy glut. In the interview, Colbert observed that the Republican-controlled Congress would approve the … Continue reading →
It is rare that a great power in world politics, after decades of hostility with another country, turns around and suddenly seeks to embrace that country as a friend, if not an ally, yet this is what the recent American … Continue reading →
Keynote Speech to the Second Baku Forum of Association of Scholars of International Relations (ASIRS) These days people use the word “unprecedented” a lot. But there is a truly new international situation around the South Caucasus. Both Russia and Turkey … Continue reading →
The trip this past week of Prime Minister Manmohan Singh should be seen in light of the possible emergence of an India Kazakhstan China geo-economic triangle, similar in nature to the one I pointed out seven years ago, long before … Continue reading →
The changing geo-economic environment around the Central Asian and South Caucasus hydrocarbon energy producers is reflected in a public flip-flop by a major European Union official this week. At a news conference in Berlin, European Union Energy Commissioner Gunther Oettinger, … Continue reading →
Kazakhstan has three major regions. Large parts of the west are desert or swamp; the population density generally very low, and the development of energy resources has encouraged local elites to explore the margins of their autonomy vis-à-vis the political … Continue reading →
In mid-August, BP Azerbaijan announced that oil from Turkmenistan is now entering the BTC in Azerbaijan and will constitute between four and five percent of its present throughput of 800,000 barrels per day (bpd), which is being upgraded to 1.2 million bpd with a view towards eventual inclusion of oil from Kazakhstan’s offshore Tengiz field. These practical steps of cooperation with Azerbaijan, combined with the mid-August announcement in Ashgabad of new directions in Turkmenistan’s gas export policy, point the way towards a European direction for future Turkmenistani production, not forgetting China and the possibility of South Asia, while Iran is given only marginal reference and Russia is ignored.
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