Central Asian Oil Chronology - 1998

Addendum 1

                     Central Asian Oil Chronology - 1998
http://www.eia.doe.gov/
United States
Energy Information Administration

January 1999
Monthly Energy Chronology - 1998

The following chronology lists international events of potential
significance for world petroleum markets.
Sources include: Dow Jones (DJ), the New York Times (NYT), the Washington
Post (WP), and the Wall
Street Journal (WSJ).
January 12 The Albanian government awards oil exploration blocks to two
international oil consortia, one
led by Austria's OMV and the other led by an Albanian subsidiary of
Occidental Petroleum. OMV and its
United Kingdom partners Enterprise Oil and Clyde Gas have received two
blocks in the south and one in
central north Albania. Meanwhile, Occidental and its partner International
Petroleum Corporation have
received two blocks in the south and one in the north. Although the
production-sharing agreements still
need to be approved by the Albanian government, drilling is expected to
begin in mid-1998. (DJ)
January 22 Statoil, Norway's state-owned energy company, reports that 10
drilling services contracts have
been awarded to companies holding production sharing contracts in the
Caspian Sea off the coast of
Azerbaijan. The 10 contracts, worth $110 million, have been awarded to
Azdri MI, Schlumberger,
Geoservices, Oceaneering, Baker Hughes Intec, Franks International and
Security DBS. The first
exploration well in the Shah Deniz area, where Statoil holds a 25.5 percent
interest, is scheduled to be
drilled in June 1998. (DJ)
February 2 Western partners in the Caspian Pipeline Consortium have frozen
funds for a $2 billion
pipeline and are pushing for a shake-up in the Consortium's Russian-led
management. The 900-mile
pipeline will eventually transport 1.4 million barrels of oil per day from
Kazakhstan's  Tengiz oil field
through Russia to the Black Sea port of Novorossiysk. Oil shipments were
scheduled to begin in late 1999,
but will likely be delayed at least one year as a result of this latest
development. Continued funding of the
project was contingent upon the Consortium obtaining Russian rights of way
and various federal and local
permits for the pipeline by the end of 1997. During a meeting in December
1997, the Western partners
discovered that much of this work had not been completed. (WSJ)
February 3 Azerbaijan's state oil company  Socar and U.S.-based Conoco
announce an agreement to
conduct a joint study of Azerbaijan's natural gas processing industries. The
study will examine the
commercial viability of gathering, processing, and transporting
Azerbaijan's natural gas and natural gas
liquids for export and domestic use. The study will be conducted over a
period of six months. (DJ)
February 3 Russia's RAO  Gazprom has sold its 10 percent stake in  Centgas,
a consortium set up to
construct a $2 billion Turkmenistan-Afghanistan-Pakistan natural gas
pipeline. U.S.-based  Unocal
Corporation acquired 7 percent of Gazprom's shares, bringing its total stake
in the  Centgas to 54 percent.
The remaining 3 percent went to Japanese-owned Indonesia Petroleum and
Itochu, South Korea's
Hyundai Engineering & Construction Company, and Pakistan's Crescent Group.
The 800-mile pipeline
will extend from the Daulatabad gas field in southeastern Turkmenistan
through Afghanistan to Pakistan.
(DJ)
February 9 Georgian President Eduard Shevardnadze escapes an assassination
attempt as he is headed
home in Tbilisi, Georgia's capital. This represents the second assassination
attempt against him in three
years. Shevardnadze is not injured, but two bodyguards are dead and four
others seriously wounded.

Shevardnadze suggests that the attack could have been related to his
country's attempt to be part of a
pipeline route transporting Caspian Sea oil to the Black Sea. (WP)

bla, bla, bla...<snip>
   Wanting to find some back up for something I heard long ago about Cuban
troops protecting Gulf Oil pipelines against the Savimbi thugs in Angola in
the late 70's, found the above.
http://www.google.com/search?hl=en&q=Cuban+troops+protecting+Angola+Gulf+Oil
+pipelines+
   I don't discount the Oil factor, but wouldn't Afghanistan have to be
occupied and/or massive bribes paid to the future Afghan Army to protect
this pipeline?
   (In this webtrawling, also found this from Z
http://burn.ucsd.edu/archives/ats-l/1998.08/msg00015.html
, which sez that the ELN, the other Columbian guerilla army, also has a
penchant for bombing oil pipelines
This is the text version of the PDF file
http://www.stanley.gluck.com/PoliticsofYugoslavia.pdf.
G o o g l e automatically generates text versions of PDF documents as we
crawl the web.
Michael Pugliese
http://www.google.com/search?q=cache:-_q2VVyiMOs:www.stanley.gluck.com/Polit
icsofYugoslavia.pdf+Cuban+troops+protecting+Angola+Gulf+Oil+pipelines+&hl=en