A new season of WikiLeaks disclosures offers a rare glimpse into the world of Caspian Sea energy politics, usually shrouded in a thick veil of corporate and government PR.
Apart from details on a hushed-up blowout in the Caspian Sea, the reports, shared through The Guardian, describe how the Russians, Turks, Georgians, Europeans and the ubiquitous British Petroleum vie to take a slice of Azerbaijan’s hydrocarbon cake.
Azerbaijan’s multi-vector energy export policy was summarized reportedly by an American diplomat as “some gas for Georgia, some gas for Turkey, some for Azerbaijan and some for Greece.”
The alleged US embassy cable was sent in 2006, when neighboring Georgia was struggling to build energy security, faced with cuts in gas supplies from Russia. Turkey did not seem particularly disposed to allow Georgia to siphon off extra volumes of Azerbaijani gas meant for Turkey. In the face of Turkey’s intransigence, Azerbaijani President Ilham Aliyev even considered cutting gas supplies Turkey to help its freezing neighbor and to accommodate both domestic and European needs.
But BP, the biggest private player on Azerbaijan’s energy scene, was allegedly not willing to share the transit gas with Georgia -- and, even, Azerbaijan -- without getting something in return. BP had its eye on the “deep gas” in the giant Azeri-Chirag-Gunashli field in the Caspian Sea and requested extending its agreement with Baku in exchange for letting Azerbaijan keep more of its own gas.
Aliyev described BP’s position as “mild” form of “blackmail” and allegedly instructed the corporation not to get ahead of itself.
The story ends here, but there could well be more oil and money drama to come.
Giorgi Lomsadze is a journalist based in Tbilisi, and author of Tamada Tales.
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