"The armed conflict that is now underway is not directly motivated by oil, but we must understand Georgia’s strategic importance to understand the political game that is being played out."
Tension between the West and Russia over Georgia intensified this week, with Russia slow to withdraw, and as the US signed a deal to station a missile defence shield in Poland. This meant the Azerbaijan to Supsa pipeline stayed closed and shipments were stuck in Black Sea ports. While BP expects that the BTC pipeline should be open again within a week, there are reports that Kazakhstan is now reconsidering where its interests lie for the Kashagan field. It may decide that it is safer to export oil via Russia than to connect to the BTC.
Europe’s dependence on Russian energy was highlighted further as wholesale gas prices jumped 14% on news that a leak in a Norwegian North Sea gas pipe will close it for the winter. In the UK, BG and EDF have already announced large price increases, and this week EoN followed suit with hikes of 15% for gas and 9.7% for electricity. In the words of Adam Scorer of Energywatch “The brakes have come off the market.”
Russia and Georgia today blamed each other for delaying repairs to a gas pipeline in the separatist enclave of South Ossetia.
Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov has accused Georgia of dodging its responsibility to restore gas supplies to Tskhinvali, the main town in the breakaway region.
Russia and Georgia waged a brief war over South Ossetia earlier this year
"According to our estimates, Georgia could repair the problem very quickly," Reuters quoted him as telling the Russian upper house of parliament.
At talks between Georgian and Russian officials yesterday in Geneva, a European Union moderator said that more needed to be done to improve the lot of people in the conflict zone and specifically that gas supplies needed to be restored in the region.
After Lavrov's statement, a Georgian minister told Reuters the damaged pipeline was located in a village occupied by Russian soldiers.
"If they allow us to enter, we are ready to repair it. But first they must remove their troops. Only then are we ready to consider resuming gas supplies to South Ossetia," said Georgian Energy Minister Aleko Khetaguri.
Russia sent its forces into South Ossetia in August to support the rebels after Georgian forces tried to recapture the breakaway region after months of tension.
After the Russian military pushed Georgian troops out of South Ossetia it drove into Georgia, capturing key road junctions and destroying military equipment before pulling back to within South Ossetia.
Russian gas giant Gazprom said last month that it was considering building a pipeline directly from Russia to South Ossetia.
ワシントンがグルジアの戦略価値を発見したのは、バクー油田を擁するアゼルバイジャンと西側巨大石油資本が、初めて世紀の契約(Contract of the Century)を結ぶに成功した、1990年代半ばのことだ。冷戦終焉から数年後。
ズビグニュー・ブレジンスキー氏(カーター政権の国家安全保障担当大統領補佐官)が98年10月に出した書「The Grand Chessboard: American Primacy and Its Geostrategic Imperatives(邦訳「地政学で世界を読む」日経ビジネス人文庫)は、米国の眼を改めてユーラシア地方に向けさせた。99年10月、トリビシを訪れたブレジンスキー氏は同年11月10日付けWSJで「(ロシアがグルジアを再び属国化しようとすることは)米国にとって憂慮すべき話になろう。グルジアがロシアの属国となれば、ロシアの力は既にモスクワの従属国となっているアルメニアに一気通貫する。アゼルバイジャンと中央アジアは西側陣営から切り離され、モスクワはバクーと黒海を結ぶパイプラインを政治的支配下に置くことが出来るようになる。」と述べた。