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>From the New Paradigms Project [Not Necessarily Endorsed] Note: We store 100's of related "New Paradigms Posts" at: http://www.msen.com/~lloyd/oldprojects/recentmail.html ======================================================== From: <http://www.swans.com/library/art7/gowans10.html> Subject: Deep Geopolitics of American World Domination Getting the Pipeline Map and Politics Right by Stephen Gowans November 12, 2001 "Our first objective is to prevent the reemergence of a new rival," said the leaked Pentagon policy-planning document, excerpted in The New York Times, in 1992. "First, the US must show the leadership necessary to establish and protect a new order that holds the promise of convincing potential competitors that they need not aspire to a greater role or pursue a more aggressive posture to protect their legitimate interests." (1) The document, widely believed to have been authored by Dick Cheney, set out a plan to seal Washington's ascendancy over the globe -- a new, bolder, imperialism than was possible before the Soviet Union crumbled. What was necessary was to have a way to deal with anyone who might be foolish or bold enough to contest Washington's developing suzerainty over the globe. So what do you do when potential competitors end up aspiring to a greater role and began to pursue a more aggressive posture to protect their legitimate interests? That's the problem Washington faced, when, last June, Russia and China drew four Central Asian countries -- Kazakhstan, the Kyrgyz Republic, Tajikistan and Uzbekistan -- into the Shanghai cooperation organization. Its purpose? "To foster world multi-polarization," said China's Jiang Zemin. (2) In other words, to thwart Washington's imperial ambitions. Not that this was the first time Washington's old Cold War adversaries had become a little testy about America's unilateralism. Just before he and his booze-soaked brain shuffled off into retirement, former Russian President Boris Yeltsin lashed out at then US President Bill Clinton. "It seems he has for a minute, for a second, for half a minute, forgotten that Russia has a full arsenal of nuclear weapons," he thundered. "A multilateral world, that is the basis for everything. As we have agreed with Jiang Zemin.....we will dictate to the world, not him, not him alone." It seemed almost pitiable. The once mighty Russia, now an impoverished, hollowed out shell of its former self, reduced by the IMF, corrupt politicians and gangsters to third world poverty faster than you can say "the Washington Consensus," almost pleading to be recognized as one of a triad of countries that dictate to the world. Dealing with Russia, increasingly encircled by an ever expanding NATO, wouldn't be much of a problem. But the Shanghai cooperation organization -- that was a problem in the making. The four Central Asian republics are key to a region teeming with vast oil and gas reserves, enough to supply America's voracious appetite for oil for the next 30 years, not to mention the oil industry's illimitable appetite for profits. This was wealth American oil men, like Cheney, and William Farish, friend of President George W. Bush and US Ambassador to the UK, dream of. "I cannot think of a time when we have had a region emerge as suddenly to become as strategically significant as the Caspian," said Cheney. (3) Certainly not a region it would be advantageous to have under the thumbs of Moscow and Beijing. Farish agreed. A Bush intimate, and himself scion of a rich Texas oil family, Farish is "fascinated by the 'black gold' that lies in large quantities in the countries around the Caspian Sea," says The London Sunday Times. And, adds the newspaper, Farish says, "US policy advisors are evaluating how best to safeguard American and European" access to "the vast oil and gas reserves of central Asia." (4) Or, to put it in less high-faulting terms: US policy advisors are evaluating how best to ensure Western firms, and especially American firms, monopolize the action. In December 1997 the National Defense Panel released a report underscoring the importance of access to Middle East and Caspian Basin oil. "We will continue to be involved in regions that control scarce resources, such as the Middle East and the emerging Caspian Sea areas for oil." (5) That the Pentagon was promising that it would continue to be involved in the Caspian, as if it were perfectly natural and legitimate for the US military to be involved in someone else's affairs half away around the globe, raised few eyebrows in Washington. It should have. But not since the Roman Empire has a country so confused appetite for entitlement as the US. Echoing the report, Clinton's Energy Secretary Bill Richardson, explained, "We've made a substantial political investment in the Caspian, and it's very important to us that both the pipeline map and the politics come out right." (6) Except, curiously, Richardson said this in connection with US threats to bomb Yugoslavia, just months before the first NATO bombs began to rain down on Belgrade, Novi Sad and Nis. So, what does the Caspian have to do with the Balkans? The answer, it seems, is a pipeline, to carry the "black gold" Farish is fascinated by, that comes from a region Cheney says has emerged quickly to become strategically significant. One planned pipeline route would see oil from the Caspian transit the Balkans into Europe, bypassing Russia. Is that why the US-led NATO coalition spent 78-days bombing Yugoslavia? Richardson's words certainly point to a connection. Another pipeline would see oil from the Caspian Basin piped to the coast of Pakistan through the second country Washington has, in the space of the last three years, bombed around the clock -- Afghanistan. Getting the pipeline map and politics right, means ensuring Washington controls the pipelines. And that means controlling the Balkans and Afghanistan. And that's meant bombing the stuffing out of both countries. Before NATO's bombing of Yugoslavia and the ouster of former Yugoslav President Slobodan Milosevic -- who's been knocked off his perch by Osama bin Laden and the Taliban as Washington's official enemy number one -- Washington didn't control the Balkans. Now it does. That leaves Afghanistan, key not only to making sure the "pipeline map and politics come out right," but also key to undermining Moscow's and Beijing's Shanghai cooperation organization. As George Monbiot puts it, "If the US succeeds in overthrowing the Taliban and replacing them with a stable and grateful pro-western government, and if the US then binds the economies of central Asia to that of its ally Pakistan, it will have crushed not only terrorism, but also the growing ambitions of both Russia and China." (7) Except, it's unlikely that terrorism will be crushed by the overthrow of the Taliban, and it's not Russia's and China's growing ambition that's at issue -- it's America's. It's curious that there are plenty of silver linings to be found in the dark cloud of Sept. 11's horrors. Bush's popularity has soared. Opposition to his legislative agenda has vanished. There's talk of accelerating tax cuts for the wealthy, raiding social security, new spending for the military, new life for the NMD, scads of new funding for the intelligence apparatus, and a pumped up patriotism that keeps Americans from asking too many questions. And this: Bush issues his "either you're with us, or you're with the terrorist" threat, the central Asian republics line up with Washington on pain of being pulverized if they don't, and before you know it, the Shanghai cooperation organization is in a shambles. In 1944, John Flynn pointed out we always wage war for some high moral purpose -- to uphold international law, to deter aggression, for human rights -- but somehow, in doing so, we always seem to capture our enemies' markets and blunder into their oil wells. And undermine their alliances. At what price for ordinary people never seems to be much of a consideration for those who order wars, or for those who stay home and eagerly beat the drums of war on the editorial pages of newspapers. "Living conditions in the country are among the worst in the world," writes Reuters reporter Jack Redden, referring to Afghanistan. "A quarter of all children die by the age of five. Life expectancy is about 45 years. Literacy, now about 30 percent of Afghan adults, is likely to drop under the Taliban's opposition to education of young girls." (8) This is the country the Pentagon can't return to the stone age, but is bombing anyway. Obliterating Red Cross warehouses, leveling hospitals, flattening residential neighborhoods. A curious turn this "war on terrorism" has taken. Ask an Afghan in one of the refugee columns streaming toward the Pakistan border or up north into Northern Alliance territory who the terrorists are. "It is a scandal in contemporary international law," writes political scientist C. Douglas Lummis, "that while the wanton destruction of towns, cities and villages is a war crime of long standing, the bombing of cities from airplanes goes not only unpunished but virtually unaccused. Air bombardment is state terrorism, the terrorism of the rich. It has burned up and blasted apart more innocents in the past six decades than have all the anti-state terrorists who ever lived." (9) Film maker and journalist John Pilger charges, "The war against terrorism is a fraud. After three weeks' bombing, not a single terrorist implicated in the attacks on America has been caught or killed in Afghanistan. Instead, one of the poorest, most stricken nations has been terrorized by the most powerful - to the point where American pilots have run out of dubious "military" targets and are now destroying mud houses, a hospital, Red Cross warehouses, lorries carrying refugees." (10) But don't fret too much, counsels Toronto's The Globe and Mail, equally at home with specious moral reasoning as it is with lending a hand to Washington and London to keep the public on side. "The attack on Afghanistan ... is a necessary evil for which scores of innocent Afghan civilians have already paid the price," reads the newspaper's Oct. 30 lead editorial. A necessary evil? Hadn't I heard those words before? American civilians are as complicit as their government in the military occupation of Saudi Arabia, in the sanctions-related deaths of Iraqis, in support of the Israeli military occupation of Palestine, says the arch-terrorist himself, Osama bin Laden. Killing American civilians, he continues, is perfectly justifiable -- a necessary evil to pressure the US government to rethink its Middle East policies. Is it any surprise that the monstrous reasoning that blithely dismisses such immense human suffering as a necessary evil to achieve some political goal is equally at home on the Globe's editorial pages? Just what is to be gained by bombing Afghanistan? In what service is this necessary evil committed? The capture of Osama bin Laden? Days ago US Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld mused aloud that bin Laden may never be captured. Finding the Saudi-exile, he said, is like finding a needle in a haystack. Does it make sense then to put millions of wretched Afghans at risk of starvation, to force countless numbers from their homes, to kill thousands, to pursue a goal whose achievement is as likely as finding a needle in a haystack? The Taliban, it should be recalled, offered to hand bin Laden over to a third country for prosecution, if Washington would present evidence that bin Laden had ordered the Sept. 11 attacks. George Bush fired backed, "No negotiations." The bombing began soon after. Earlier, Washington backed off a promise made by Secretary of State Colin Powell to present its evidence that bin Laden was behind the attacks on Washington and New York. To date, the White House has presented no evidence at all. And while British Prime Minister Tony Blair presented a 70-point brief to justify his country's participation in the attack on Afghanistan, what was most remarkable about the brief is that it had not a single shred of concrete evidence linking bin Laden to the Sept. 11 atrocities. Blair later admitted that what evidence he had wouldn't stand up in court. Which means, he, and his master, George W. Bush, are killing innocent civilians, and adding to the misery of millions more, to pursue a man they have little hope of capturing, who, moreover, they have no evidence was behind Sept. 11. Could anyone, therefore, be blamed for concluding the war on Afghanistan is a fraud? Writer Michael Parenti points out that most people "recognize that politicians lie, that they are capable of saying one thing then doing another...But when it comes to...foreign policy, many of us retreat from that judgment. Suddenly we find it hard to believe that (our) leaders would lie to us about their intentions in the world." (11) But they've lied before. Remember the Gulf of Tonkin affair? A new book by historian Michael Beschloss, Reaching for Glory, cites secret tapes and the diary of former president Lyndon Johnson's wife, Lady Bird, to show that Johnson admitted the incident he used to win congressional approval for the Vietnam war was a fake. (12) And how about the Bay of Pigs? The secret bombing of Laos and Cambodia? The illegal funneling of arms to the Contras? How about the Sudan pill factory that Bill Clinton flattened with cruise missiles, at a time attention was focussed on his lying over the Lewinski affair? Clinton said the factory was manufacturing chemical weapons. It turns out it wasn't. What about Tony Blair declaring he had overwhelming and incontrovertible proof that bin Laden was behind the Sept. 11 attacks, and then, when he was challenged, having to confess the evidence wouldn't stand up under legal scrutiny? "Politicians are lying to you," warns Harper's publisher John R. Mac Arthur, who wrote a book on censorship and propaganda during the Gulf War. "One of our big problems," he continues, "is that reporters themselves are helping amplify the lies." (13) And in the process, while we think an heroic struggle against terrorism is being waged, a struggle that requires the escalation of the misery of an already miserable people as a "necessary evil," what's really happening is that our leaders are making sure their considerable investment in the pipeline map and politics comes out right. Notes 1. The New York Times, March 8, 1992. (back) 2. George Monbiot, "America's Pipe Dream," The Guardian, October 23, 2001. (back) 3. Ibid. (back) 4. Tom Walker, "US to build buffer zone in Balkans," The Sunday Times, September 23, 2000. (back) 5. Report of the National Defense Panel, December 1997. <http://www.dtic.mil/ndp/>. (back) 6. The New York Times, Nov. 8, 1998. (back) 7. George Monbiot, "America's Pipe Dream," The Guardian, October 23, 2001. (back) 8. Jack Redden, Reuters News Agency, August 29, 2001. (back) 9. The Nation, September 26, 1994. (back) 10. The Mirror, Nov. 7, 2001. (back) 11. Michael Parenti, Against Empire. City Light Books, San Francisco, 1995, p.71. (back) 12. LBJ tape 'confirms Vietnam war error', The Times (London), November 7, 2001. (back) 13. "Censorship and Propaganda in the Gulf War: How Government Can Mold Public Opinion," Speech delivered to Independent Policy Forum, San Francisco, October 7, 1993. (back) Stephen Gowans is a writer and political activist who lives in Ottawa, Canada. From: <http://seattletimes.nwsource.com/html/nationworld/134421572_afghanoil17.html> Afghan pipeline: maybe not just a pipe dream Sunday, March 17, 2002 By Stephen Kinzer The New York Times With Bush administration officials asserting that the Afghan campaign will be over in a matter of months, the world is beginning to focus on rebuilding that shattered country. It is a daunting task. Poor in natural resources, Afghanistan has been ravaged by years of drought as well as war. Donor nations have pledged more than $4.5 billion over the next five years toward the reconstruction effort. But in trying to help the country learn to stand on its own financial feet, they may conclude that - as in the time of the ancient Silk Road - a central source of Afghanistan's wealth lies not in what it holds or produces, but in what passes through it. In the early 1990s, three countries around the Caspian Sea - Azerbaijan, Kazakstan and Turkmenistan - were found to be awash in vast reserves of oil and gas, second only to those beneath the Persian Gulf. Because all three are landlocked, control over their billions of dollars worth of oil and gas depends on control over the pipelines that will carry it to market. Several lines already exist; new ones are urgently needed. The Afghan conflict, the first major war in Central Asia since the oil and gas finds, has reshuffled the geopolitical deck and made a pipeline route through Afghanistan, for which U.S. oil executives were lobbying as recently as the mid-1990s, feasible once again. Other routes - each of which would benefit a different group of countries and energy companies - are also under consideration. "Whoever can shape the way that pipeline map looks will shape the future of a huge part of the world," said S. Frederick Starr, chairman of the Central Asia-Caucasus Institute at Johns Hopkins University. "The main feature of these states is their remoteness. Pipelines are the only way they can overcome their isolation. Transit fees are real money, and who gets that real money will go a long way toward determining which of these countries succeed and which don't." Afghanistan's main hope lies with the huge gas reserves in neighboring Turkmenistan, which other Asian nations crave. Today, the only pipelines through which Turkmen gas and oil can be exported run to Russia. The pipeline proposed several years ago by the Texas oil company Unocal would run across the breadth of Afghanistan to an outlet near the Pakistani port of Karachi; an extension might lead farther south to India. Rob Sobhani, a Washington-based consultant who monitors Central Asian energy projects, calculates the cost of this project at $1.9 billion to $2.7 billion, up to $500 million of which would be spent in Afghanistan. Unocal was unable to build its pipeline because foreign banks and governments concluded they could not do business with the Taliban. With the Taliban now overthrown, the pipeline is again a real possibility. "Those who thought about this pipeline during the Taliban period were thinking about a pipe dream," said Ariel Cohen, a research fellow at the Heritage Foundation in Washington. "Today, provided these people can adapt themselves to new international realities, it's looking more feasible." Those new realities include strengthened U.S. power in the region, a friendly but unstable regime in Afghanistan and the unreliability of local Afghan chieftains. Such a pipeline could bring trouble as well as wealth. Since it would pass through much remote and mountainous terrain, regional warlords who believed they were not receiving a just share of the profits might be in a position to blackmail the government. Nor is it certain that wealth from transit fees would trickle down to the masses. Russia, seeking to preserve the profits it makes from distributing Central Asian oil and gas, might resist a pipeline across Afghanistan. So might Iran, which also wants routes that run across its territory. India would hardly be thrilled with any project that strengthens its archrival Pakistan. Pipeline politics may also influence the future foreign policy of the United States. U.S. oil companies that spend billions of dollars on pipelines will expect the government to protect their investment. The United States has shown, notably in Kuwait, that it is ready to go to war to protect its access to foreign energy reserves. Copyright � 2002 The Seattle Times Company From: <http://www.eia.doe.gov/emeu/cabs/afghan.html> (click for maps) Afghanistan The information contained in this report is the best available as of September 2001 and can change. GENERAL BACKGROUND Afghanistan's significance from an energy standpoint stems from its geographical position as a potential transit route for oil and natural gas exports from Central Asia to the Arabian Sea. This potential includes the possible construction of oil and natural gas export pipelines through Afghanistan, which was under serious consideration in the mid-1990s. The idea has since been undermined by Afghanistan's instability. Since 1996, most of Afghanistan has been controlled by the Taliban movement, which the United States does not recognize as the government of Afghanistan. On December 19, 2000, the UN Security Council imposed additional sanctions against Afghanistan's ruling Taliban movement (which controls around 95% of the country), including an arms embargo and a ban on the sale of chemicals used in making heroin. These sanctions (Resolution 1333) are aimed at pressuring Afghanistan to turn over Osama bin Laden, suspected in various terrorist attacks, including the August 1998 US Embassy bombings in Kenya and Tanzania. These latest sanctions are in addition to sanctions (Resolution 1267) imposed on Afghanistan in November 1999, which included a freeze on Taliban assets and a ban on international flights by Afghanistan's national airline, Ariana. The Taliban reacted sharply to the new sanctions, ordering a boycott of US and Russian goods, and pulling out of UN-mediated peace talks aimed at ending the country's civil war. On November 29, 1999, UN Secretary General Kofi Annan issued a report on Afghanistan which listed the country's major problems as follows: civil war (which has caused many casualties and refugees, and which has devastated the country's economy), record opium production, wide-scale human rights violations, and food shortages caused in part by drought. According to the 2001 CIA World Factbook, Afghanistan is an extremely poor, landlocked country, highly dependent on farming and livestock raising. Afghanistan has experienced over two decades of war, including the nearly 10-year Soviet military occupation (which ended in 1989). During that conflict one-third of the population fled the country, with Pakistan and Iran sheltering a combined peak of more than 6 million refugees. Large Afghan refugee populations remain in Pakistan and Iran. Gross domestic product has fallen substantially over the past 20 years because of the loss of labor and capital and the disruption of trade and transport. The severe drought of 1998-2000 added to these problems. The majority of the population continues to suffer from insufficient food, clothing, housing, and medical care. Inflation remains a serious problem throughout the country. International aid can deal with only a fraction of the humanitarian problem, let alone promote economic develop! ment. The economic situation did not improve in 1999-2000, as internal civil strife has continued, hampering both domestic economic policies and international aid efforts. Numerical data are likely to be either unavailable or unreliable. Afghanistan was by far the largest world producer of opium poppies in 2000, and narcotics trafficking is a major source of revenues. ENERGY OVERVIEW The Soviets had estimated Afghanistan's proven and probable natural gas reserves at up to 5 trillion cubic feet (Tcf) in the 1970s. Afghan natural gas production reached 275 million cubic feet per day (Mmcf/d) in the mid-1970s. However, due to declining reserves from producing fields, output gradually fell to about 220 Mmcf/d by 1980. At that time, the Jorquduq field was brought online and was expected to boost Afghan natural gas output to 385 Mmcf/d by the early 1980s. However, sabotage of infrastructure by the anti-Soviet mujaheddin fighters limited the country's total production to 290 Mmcf/d, an output level that was held fairly steady until the Soviet withdrawal in 1989. After the Soviet pullout and subsequent Afghan civil war, roughly 31 producing wells at Sheberghan area fields were shut in pending the restart of natural gas sales to the former Soviet Union. At its peak in the late 1970s, Afghanistan supplied 70%-90% of its natural gas output to the Soviet Union's natural gas grid via a link through Uzbekistan. In 1992, Afghan President Najibullah indicated that a new natural gas sales agreement with Russia was in progress. However, several former Soviet republics raised price and distribution issues and negotiations stalled. In the early 1990s, Afghanistan also discussed possible natural gas supply arrangements with Hungary, Czechoslovakia, and several Western European countries, but these talks never progressed further. Afghan natural gas fields include Jorqaduq, Khowaja Gogerdak, and Yatimtaq, all of which are located within 20 miles of the northern town of Sheberghan in Jowzjan province. Natural gas production and distribution is the responsibility of the Taliban-controlled Afghan Gas Enterprise. In 1999, work resumed on the repair of a distribution pipeline to Mazar-i-Sharif. Spur pipelines to a small power plant and fe! rtilizer plant also were repaired and completed. Mazar-i-Sharif is now receiving natural gas from the pipeline, as well as some other surrounding areas. Rehabilitation of damaged natural gas wells has been undertaken at the Khowaja Gogerak field, which has increased natural gas production. In February 1998, the Taliban announced plans to revive the Afghan National Oil Company, which was abolished by the Soviet Union after it invaded Afghanistan in 1979. Soviet estimates from the late 1970s placed Afghanistan's proven and probable oil and condensate reserves at 95 million barrels. Oil exploration and development work as well as plans to build a 10,000-bbl/d refinery were halted after the 1979 Soviet invasion. A very small amount of crude oil is produced at the Angot field in the northern Sar-i-Pol province. It is processed at a primitive topping plant in Sheberghan, and burned in central heating boilers in Sheberghan, Mazar-i-Sharif, and Kabul. Another small oilfield at Zomrad Sai near Sheberghan was reportedly undergoing repairs in mid-2001. Petroleum products such as diesel, gasoline, and jet fuel are imported, mainly from Pakistan and Turkmenistan. A small storage and distribution facility exists in Jalalabad on the highway between Kabul and Peshawar, Pakistan. Turkmenistan also has a petroleum product storage and distribution facility at Tagtabazar near the Afghan border, which supplies northwestern Afghanistan. Besides oil and natural gas, Afghanistan also is estimated to have 73 million tons of coal reserves, most of which is located in the region between Herat and Badashkan in the northern part of the country. Although Afghanistan produced over 100,000 short tons of coal annually as late as the early 1990s, as of 1999, the country was producing only around 1,000 short tons. Afghanistan's power grid has been severely damaged by years of war. Currently, the ruling Taliban are concentrating on rebuilding damaged hydroelectric plants, power distribution lines, and high-voltage cables. Production of power by Afghanistan's hydroelectric dams was negatively affected by the drought of 1998-2000, resulting in blackouts in Kabul and other cities. Increased rainfall in 2001 has improved power production. The Kajaki Dam in Helmand province near Kandahar is undergoing the addition of another generating turbine with assistance from the Chinese Dongfeng Agricultural Machinery Company. This will add 16.5 megawatts (MW) to its generating capacity when completed. Transmission lines from the Kajaki Dam to Kandahar were repaired in early 2001, along with a substation in the city, restoring supplies of electricity. The Dahla Dam in Kandahar province also has been restored to operation, along with the Breshna-Kot Dam in Nangarhar province, which has a generating! capacity of 11.5 MW. The 66-MW Mahipar hydro plant also is now operational. Turkmenistan supplies electricity to much of northwestern Afghanistan. In October 1999, Afghanistan announced that it had reached agreement with Turkmenistan for electricity imports into northwestern Afghanistan, including power to the city of Herat and the Herat cement plant. Another transmission line has been built from Turkmenistan to the city of Andkhoy, and one was under construction in 2001 to Sheberghan. Electricity has previously been imported from Uzbekistan for Mazar-i-Sharif, but supplies were cut off during the winter of 1999 due to payment arrears. REGIONAL PIPELINE PLANS In January 1998, an agreement was signed between Pakistan, Turkmenistan, and the Taliban to arrange funding on a proposed 890-mile, $2-billion, 1.9-billion-cubic-feet-per-day natural gas pipeline project. The proposed pipeline would have transported natural gas from Turkmenistan's 45-Tcf Dauletabad natural gas field to Pakistan, and most likely would have run from Dauletabad south to the Afghan border and through Herat and Qandahar in Afghanistan, to Quetta, Pakistan. The line would then have linked with Pakistan's natural gas grid at Sui. Natural gas shipments had been projected to start at 700 Mmcf/d in 1999 and to rise to 1.4 Bcf/d or higher by 2002. In March 1998, however, Unocal announced a delay in finalizing project details due to Afghanistan's continuing civil war. In June 1998, Gazprom announced that it was relinquishing its 10% stake in the gas pipeline project consortium (known as the Central Asian Gas Pipeline Ltd., or Centgas), which was formed in August 1996. A! s of June 1998, Unocal and Saudi Arabia's Delta Oil held a combined 85% stake in Centgas, while Turkmenrusgas owned 5%. Other participants in the proposed project besides Delta Oil included the Crescent Group of Pakistan, Gazprom of Russia, Hyundai Engineering & Construction Company of South Korea, Inpex and Itochu of Japan On December 8, 1998, Unocal announced that it was withdrawing from the Centgas consortium, citing low oil prices and turmoil in Afghanistan as making the pipeline project uneconomical and too risky. Unocal's announcement followed an earlier statement -- in August 1998 -- that the company was suspending its role in the Afghanistan gas pipeline project in light of U.S. government military action in Afghanistan, and also due to intensified fighting between the Taliban and opposition groups. Unocal had previously stressed that the Centgas pipeline project would not proceed until an internationally recognized government was in place in Afghanistan. To date, however, only three countries -- Saudi Arabia, Pakistan and the United Arab Emirates -- have recognized the Taliban government (note: in late September 2001, Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates both cut ties with the Taliban). Besides the gas pipeline, Unocal also had considered building a 1,000-mile, 1-million barrel-per-day (bbl/d) capacity oil pipeline that would link Chardzou, Turkmenistan to Pakistan's Arabian Sea Coast via Afghanistan. Since the Chardzou refinery is already linked to Russia's Western Siberian oil fields, this line could provide a possible alternative export route for regional oil production from the Caspian Sea. The $2.5-billion pipeline is known as the Central Asian Oil Pipeline Project. For a variety of reasons (i.e. war and political instability), however, this project remains highly doubtful for the time being. In April 1999, Pakistan, Turkmenistan and the Taliban authorities in Afghanistan agreed to reactivate the Turkmenistan-Pakistan gas pipeline project, and to ask the Centgas consortium, now led by Saudi Arabia's Delta Oil (following Unocal's withdrawal from the project), to proceed. Periodic meetings to discuss the project have continued. It remains unlikely, however, that this pipeline will be built. ENERGY INFRASTRUCTURE AT A GLANCE Oil Angot Oilfield Produces a small quantity of crude oil; located in Sar-i-Pol province Zomrad Sai Oilfield Reportedly undergoing rehabilitation; near Sheberghan Sheberghan Topping Plant Primitive topping plant which processes crude oil for consumption in heating boilers in Kabul, Mazar-i-Sharif, and Sheberghan Jalalabad Storage Facility Petroleum product storage and distribution facility Gas Sheberghan Area Gas Fields The Jorqaduk, Khowaja Gogerak, and Yatimtaq gas fields are all located within 20 miles of Sheberghan Pipeline to Mazar-i-Sharif A pipeline connects these gas fields to Mazar-i-Sharif.Gas is used for a small power plant, a fertilizer plant, and domestic use. Local pipelines Small local pipelines near the gas fields distribute gas in small quantities to nearby villages and Sheberghan Electricity Kajaki Dam Located in Helmand province near Kandahar; undergoing upgrade which will add a third generating turbine and increase its installed capacity by 16.5 MW (from its current 33 MW capacity); transmission lines to Kandahar repaired in early 2001. Mahipar Dam Installed capacity of 66 MW.Repaired and operational. Breshna-Kot Dam Installed capacity of 11.5 MW.Repaired and operational.In Nangarhar province near Jalalabad. Breshna-Kot Substation Reportedly undergoing repairs. Dahla Dam Kandahar province.Repaired and operational. Mazar-i-Sharif Power Plant Small gas-fired power plant near Mazar-i-Sharif, with an installed capacity of 35 MW. Transmission Lines from Turkmenistan Transmission lines from Turkmenistan supply power to several cities in northwestern Afghanistan, including Herat, and Andkhoy.A line was under construction in early 2001 to Sheberghan. Note: This listing of Afghanistan�s energy infrastructure was compiled from information available in press and media sources, and should not necessarily be considered comprehensive. Only facilities which have been reported to be functional or under repair have been included. U.S. Geological Survey - Map of Afghanistan's Natural Resources Sources for this report include: BBC Monitoring South Asia; BBC Summary of World Broadcasts; Dow Jones; Economist Intelligence Unit Viewswire; Financial Times Asia Intelligence Wire; Foreign Broadcast Information Service(FBIS). For more information from EIA on Afghanistan, please see: EIA - Country Information on Afghanistan Links to other U.S. government sites: 2001 CIA World Factbook - Afghanistan U.S. State Department Travel Warning on Afghanistan U.S. State Department Consular Information Sheet -- Afghanistan U.S. Geological Survey - Afghanistan Natural Resources Map The following links are provided solely as a service to our customers, and therefore should not be construed as advocating or reflecting any position of the Energy Information Administration (EIA) or the United States Government. In addition, EIA does not guarantee the content or accuracy of any information presented in linked sites. The Islamic State of Afghanistan Afghanistan Online Washington Post: World Reference -- Afghanistan University of Texas at Austin: Afghanistan Information Afghanistan - Roads and Airports Map ReliefWeb - Map of Afghanistan's Provinces Afghanistan Today Afghan Network If you liked this Country Analysis Brief or any of our many other Country Analysis Briefs, you can be automatically notified via e-mail of updates. You can also join any of our several mailing lists by selecting the listserv to which you would like to be subscribed. The main URL for listserv signup is <http://www.eia.doe.gov/listserv_signup.html>. Please follow the directions given. You will then be notified within an hour of any updates to Country Analysis Briefs in your area of interest. Return to Country Analysis Briefs home page Contact: Lowell Feld lowell.feld@ eia.doe.gov Phone: (202) 586-9502 Fax: (202) 586-9753 From: <http://www.rense.com/general19/oil.htm> The Afghan Pipeline Project - An Oil-Soaked History Terry Anderson wstngtymonlyn@ msn.com ISLAMABAD - Even as the Taliban are still fighting to establish complete control over Afghanistan, three multinationals, including two American, are trying to woo the Islamic militia for its support to the proposed multi-billion dollar oil and gas pipelines to be laid through the country. <http://www.expressindia.com/fe/daily/19970602/15355423.html> Bridas And Unocal Still Fighting Over Turkmenistan-Pakistan Pipeline GasAndOil.com 11-5-97 Hearings are still going on in a lawsuit of Argentine oil and gas firm Bridas S.A.. against Unocal Corp. The chief of Bridas' Afghan operations, meanwhile, said earlier this week that his company was close to signing a pipeline agreement with the Taliban, the Islamic movement that controls large parts of Afghan territory, including virtually all the proposed pipeline route. (Where is that MAP?) He said Bridas would start construction as soon as the deal is signed. <http://www.gasandoil.com/goc/company/cnc75005.htm> (Uh-Oh...But wait a minute OUR "oil boys" pulled a fast one on Bridas...) Unocal News Release Texas Court Dismisses Lawsuit Against Unocal - Judge Says No Cause Of Action By Bridas 10-5-98 SUGAR LAND, Texas - Unocal Corporation today said that the Texas District Court in Fort Bend County has granted the company's request for summary judgement and dismissed the lawsuit filed by Bridas Corporation. "We are pleased that the court has granted our request," said Roger C. Beach, Unocal chairman and chief executive officer. "From the outset, we have maintained that we did not interfere with Bridas' business and it was inappropriate for them to sue Unocal in the United States concerning business activities in Turkmenistan and Afghanistan." Judge Brady Elliott in his decision issued Oct. 2 said that any dispute between Unocal and Bridas was governed by the laws of Turkmenistan and Afghanistan rather than Texas law. In February 1996, Bridas filed a petition against Unocal and others alleging that the defendants interfered with Bridas' rights under agreements with the government of Turkmenistan to develop the Yashlar field and to transport natural gas from that field to Pakistan. "We have always maintained that this case was totally without merit," Beach said. "Unocal operates around the world under a set of values that recognize the political, economic and cultural rights of our host countries, while maintaining the honesty and integrity necessary for successful global relationships." (What! I remember Sept. 11, 2001) Unocal is one of the world's largest independent oil and gas exploration and production companies, with major resource development, power plant and pipeline projects in Asia, the U.S. Gulf of Mexico region and Latin America. <http://www.unocal.com/uclnews/98news/100598.htm> (Well hell, I'm impressed!) Unocal.com News Release Company Not Supporting Taliban In Any Way 9-14-01 EL SEGUNDO, Calif. - Unocal Corporation is not supporting the Taliban in Afghanistan in any way whatsoever. Nor do we have any project or involvement in Afghanistan. Beginning in late 1997, Unocal was a member of a multinational consortium that was evaluating construction of a Central Asia Gas (CentGas) pipeline between Turkmenistan and Pakistan. Part of this pipeline would have crossed western Afghanistan. However, Unocal suspended its participation in the CentGas consortium in August 1998 and formally withdrew from that consortium in December 1998. Our company has had no further role in developing or funding that project or any other project that might involve the Taliban. The pipeline was never constructed. During this time, Afghanistan was in the midst of a civil war. We met with many factions, including the Taliban, to educate them about the benefits such a pipeline could bring to this desperately poor and war-torn country, as well as to the Central Asian region. At no time did we make any deal with the Taliban, and, in fact, consistently emphasized that the project could not and would not proceed until there was an internationally recognized government in place in Afghanistan that fairly represented all its people. Our hope was that the project could help bring peace, stability and economic development to the Afghans, as well as develop important energy resources for the region. Unocal suspended participation in the pipeline consortium in August 1998 (see statement). Unocal officially withdrew from the consortium (in accordance with the consortium contracts) in December 1998 (see news release). After several incorrect reports appeared, including one published in Pakistan in February 1999, Unocal reconfirmed its position regarding this matter in another statement dated February 1999 (see news release). <http://www.unocal.com/uclnews/2001news/091401.htm> Unocal.com News Release 8-21-98 EL SEGUNDO, Calif. - Unocal will only participate in construction of the proposed Central Asia Gas Pipeline when and if Afghanistan achieves the peace and stability necessary to obtain financing from international lending agencies for this project and an established government is recognized by the United Nations and the United States. For this reason, we strongly support the United Nations conflict resolution process underway in this and other regions. (So how long have they been planning this "War on Terrorism"? Well, with that said now we can see why we needed so desperately to get the Taliban out of control and our guy in control: see Profile of Hamid Karzai... weren't we angry because women were wearing Burkas?) A Profile Of Hamid Karzai (extract) Hamid Karzai, who is as comfortable discussing sitting on a carpet as in a Washington or London "salon", has a profound knowledge of the western world. After Kabul and India, where he has studied law, he completed his learnings in the USA, where he acted, for a while, as a consultant for the American oil company Unocal, at the time it was considering building a pipeline in Afghanistan. <http://www.khilafah.com/1421/category.php?DocumentID=2983&TagID=1> (But our "oil boys" were negotiating this way way back with the Taliban in 1997...Sugerland, Texas to be exact. Texas is where the Bush Family reigns, isn't it?) Central Asia Pipeline Projects Six international companies and the government of Turkmenistan formed Central Asia Gas Pipeline, Ltd., in October 1997. Unocal's interest is 54.11 percent. The group is developing a project to link Turkmenistan's abundant proven natural gas reserves with markets in Pakistan and India. This was a significant step forward, although major obstacles remain - key among them being current instability in Afghanistan, through which a major portion of the gas pipeline would run. Unocal is also involved in a parallel proposal to build an oil pipeline to transport Central Asian oil resources to an export terminal on the Arabian Sea. (But wait a minute we have breaking news: IT IS about the women of the veil...) Unocal.com News Release 12-10-98 Since the pipeline project was first proposed in 1995, there have been a number of complex issues that Unocal has taken very seriously. Unocal recognized the legitimate concerns regarding the treatment of women in Afghanistan. hummmmmmm Consistent with our core values and business principles, Unocal provided humanitarian support and skills training to Afghanistan through CARE and the University of Nebraska at Omaha. Neither program was designed to provide pipeline construction skills training.(Yeah Right) These programs met or exceeded UN guidelines for doing fieldwork in Afghanistan. They included basic job skills training and education for both men and women, and elementary education for boys and girls. Unocal also supported earthquake relief efforts through the Red Cross and the United Nations. <http://www.unocal.com/uclnews/98news/centgas.htm> (OK, so is all this about 9/11...Burkas...or Oil? You be the judge...) An Afghanistan Primer: The Good, the Bad and the...VERY Bad Afghanistan is very confusing. 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