Militarism and Oil…some thoughts

by reader ilsm

Militarism and Oil

I have been on the web figuring out what is going on with Palin, who has not had much experience with the North Atlantic, and seems to want Georgia and Ukraine to gain membership in NATO. So I did some googling on Caspian Sea pipelines. Interesting stuff. Seems both Russia and Iran have interests in Caspian Sea oil exports. Seems the larger producers of oil on the sea are Azerbaijan (bordering Georgia) and Kazakhstan on the west coast. Viewing a map the Caspian Sea has not rivers flowing out and no connection by water to other maritime routes. Getting oil and gas from the area is by pipeline.

Russia and Iran have significant issue with Kazakh oil and gas crossing the Caspian via submerged pipeline. So Kazakh product will go east and south, making Afghanistan an interesting place for pipeline development as well as Iran. So, why NOT make war on Iran? The carbon swelling products need to get to China, India and Japan.

A more interesting issue is; what about Georgia? There are several routes for Azerbaijan/Baku oil. One is to a Russian republic port on the Black Sea, one is to a Georgian port on the Black Sea, and a third planned route is through Georgia and Turkey (1800 km) to a port in Turkey on the Mediterranean Sea. Using Georgian pipelines denies Russian revenues for pipeline tariffs and maintenance.

For some reason Israel wants the Mediterranean-Georgian pipeline and since Israel receives much of its security funding from the US it has served as a US surrogate providing about a thousand advisors to Georgia preparing them for their escapade into Ossetia on 8 Aug 08.

The Russians responded defending Ossetia with their “peacekeepers” and sending the signal that Georgian pipelines are not secure and can be cut. That does not support US oil to invest in Georgia?

Similarly, pipelines run through Ukraine which delivers Russian petroleum products to west Europe.

Considering pipeline security and the ability of the Russians to control oil and gas flow, NATO membership for Ukraine and Georgia means NATO would establish defense of US interests in pipelines and energy supplies for US pipeline companies who sell to Europe.

This is vastly expensive military response to externalities from oil consumption. Response that is too expensive and counter productive.

More oil cowboy world affairs from Palin and Mc Cain. When will the US need to commit two aircraft carriers to the Black Sea?
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by reader ilsm