The Southern Caucasus Pipelines and the Caspian “Oil Diplomacy” The issue of transporting Caspian oil and natural gas to world markets

Resumo

In this paper, our aim is to give the reader a unified overview of developments in discussions surrounding the transporting of Caspian mineral wealth. Indeed, it has been clear from the beginning of discussions on exploitation and transport of Caspian hydrocarbons that the question of the direction in which Azerbaijani (and Caspian generally) oil and gas would flow to world markets is, if not exclusively political, at least highly politicized. It was assumed that control over the transport channels for Azerbaijani or Caspian oil and natural gas would automatically secure the transit companies both stable and potentially significant revenue and an effective tool for influencing the politics of the producer itself.