U.S. places large bet on pipeline
by Candace Rondeaux

NEW YORK - American-backed plans to build a nearly 1,100-mile-long oil pipeline from the Caspian Sea to the Mediterranean are about to go from what skeptics once called a "pipe dream" to a reality.

Trailing from Baku, Azerbaijan, through Georgia to the Turkish seaport of Ceyhan, British energy giant BP will bring the Baku-Tbilisi-Ceyhan (BTC) pipeline on line this month. One of the longest oil routes in the world, it's expected to pump 1 million barrels of oil a day by 2010.

With oil prices skyrocketing, the hope is the pipeline will bring consumers in the West a steady flow of oil while avoiding the usual risks. No shaky Middle East regimes to deal with. No tricky negotiations with unfriendly OPEC nations. Instead, the theory goes, oil would flow smoothly through the rugged deserts and steep mountainsides of cash-starved former Soviet republics. Along the way, the $3.6 billion project would bring foreign investment and much-needed economic development to the region.

President Bush sees the BTC pipeline as a critical piece of America's energy policy for the future.

"Greater energy security through a more diverse supply of oil for global energy markets, these are the engines of global growth, and with this pipeline those engines can now run at high speed," Bush said on the eve of the pipeline's construction launch two years ago.

But the project represents a big gamble for the United States in an energy-rich region traditionally dominated by Russia and Iran. The pipeline could undercut Iranian oil production and compete with Russian-controlled oil routes, which has provoked some grumbling from both countries.

To guard against threats, the United States has spent $64 million to train Georgian troops in antiterrorism tactics. American military officials have said the United States will spend an additional $100 million to train and equip the Caspian Guard, a network of special operations and police units that will protect oil facilities and key assets in the region, the Wall Street Journal reported in April

.Much of the pipeline operations are orchestrated from BP's offices in Baku, the capital of Azerbaijan. A few miles from the phalanx of rusting Soviet-era oil derricks that line the city's coast, BP's headquarters are tucked away in the ultralux Park Hyatt Hotel, a modern pastel confection of a building.

In the lobby, dark-haired Russian women in stiletto heels, thick lipstick and Gucci sunglasses lounge on suede couches. German businessmen chomp on overpriced sandwiches. Doormen eye visitors warily at the entrance. The hotel is the nexus of the modern Wild West, where Western oil executives and Soviet-era strong men are corralling a new energy corridor.

In his sleek office several floors up, BTC Company CEO Michael Townshend plots a crucial part of the Caspian region's economic future. The oil exec has spent much of his career jetting from pipeline to platform, from Alaska to Nigeria, Australia and Texas.>>>continued

http://www.energybulletin.net/6123.html

Oh boy cant you see the money crossing the palms of Bush and his Administration, they sure as hell have hit a sixer with this little gold mine