U.S. Companies Eye Trans-Afghan Pipeline

[NNN0LHI]

http://www.myafghan.com/news2.asp?id=577434660

ASHGABAT, Turkmenistan (AP) -- American companies might join a long-delayed trans-Afghan natural gas pipeline project expected to be launched in 2006, the U.S. ambassador to Turkmenistan said Tuesday.

"We are seriously looking at the project, and it is quite possible that American companies will join it," U.S. Ambassador Tracey Anne Jacobson said, speaking in Russian, after a meeting with Turkmen President Saparmurat Niyazov.

The Turkmen government said Monday that a feasibility study for the project for a pipeline from the gas-rich Central Asian nation through Afghanistan and Pakistan was complete, and that construction would begin in 2006.

U.S. company Unocal Corp., based in El Segundo, California, was considering participation in the project in the 1990s, but plans were abandoned when the United States fired cruise missiles into Afghanistan in 1998 in pursuit of Osama bin Laden's al-Qaida network, blamed for two U.S. embassy bombings that year in East Africa.

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[IndianaGreen]

1. The resurrection of an old PNAC dream

looks like Afghanistan is stable enough to dust off those prewar oil exploitation plans.

Who says this wasn't about OIL?

[NYC]

2. No! What a surprise!

So Bridas is out, and Unocal is back in? Karzai is the perfect man for the job.

[NNN0LHI]

4. I was reading that Unocal Karzai is celebrating it all with his two wives

Republican values for you.

Don

[NYC]

8. No wonder he won't be seen in public with his wife.

He has two. I didn't know that.

[The_Casual_Observer]

3. "a long-delayed trans-Afghan natural gas pipeline"

Are we still going to supply them with the long delayed "carpet of gold"?

Much easier to deal with uncle karzai than the filthy Taliban I suppose.

[tkmorris]

5. Doubt it will happen

There really is almost no chance for such a pipeline to remain intact for even as long as a week at a stretch. It would be the primary target of every warlord in the nation. Just MHO of course.

[UL_Approved]

7. Maybe it would, maybe it wouldn't

What is to say that the bombings in Iraq are "acts of insurgency"? How do we know what is going on there?

It would be interesting to see if that project would work or not. Remember, the planners would have to look at Iraq at some point, and assess that petroleum extraction or transportation is utterly impractical. With all of the money to be lost if the project failed, do you really think that they would have considered it in the first place?

[tkmorris]

10. These guys?

Yeah, actually I do. Well actually it depends on who underwrites the project. If it is the Bush admin or their puppets in Afghanistan then yes, they would cheerfully erect a pipeline doomed to fail. They are constantly underestimating the effect they have on people and probably believe they could control the pipeline without more than nuisance attacks upon it.

Now, if it is to be the oil companies to pay for it you have a different story perhaps. I think UNOCAL was mentioned was it not? I don't believe that they would consider the cost/benefit ratio to be worthy of consideration at this time.

[theresistance]

6. This sort of confirms everything that was said about

the invasion of Afghanistan, oil pipleline-wise...

[leftchick]

9. so they get both carpets?

the gold and the bomb carpets. Unocal Karzai gets the gold one of course. The Afghanis get the bombs.

[No Exit]

11. They talk like this was some "new" possibility

when if you just read up on what has really been happening in Afghanistan, our invasion is just one step on a continuum which included Unocal interfering with Bridas' contractual relationships, etc. There's even a federal (5th Circuit) decision already out there in which Bridas sued for that. Bridas won. Yet Unocal has been "in" as far as this pipeline, for some years now.

[leesa]

14. And then, miraculously, Argentina's economy was collapsed by IMF

Wonder how THAT happened.

[No Exit]

16. Good point--Bridas is an Argentine corporation...

I hadn't made that connection, but it makes sense.

[The Backlash Cometh]

12. Isn't this what the Cheney-Energy meetings were all about?

You know, the meetings that set-off the hornet's nest and resulted in the 9/11 attacks.

[leesa]

13. But, of course, that's NOT why we invaded Afghanistan. RIGHT.

[NNN0LHI]

17. Many people thought it was so Afghan women didn't have to wear a burqa

And to catch bin Laden. Neither of which has materialized. Osama is still making videos and the Afghan women are still wearing a burqa.

Don

[bemildred]

15. China oil firm 'plans Unocal bid'

Chinese energy giant CNOOC is planning a major acquisition which could hugely boost its Asian assets, reports say.

The plan, according to the Financial Times, is to offer some $13bn (£7bn) for US firm Unocal, which operates in both Asia and the US.

http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/business/4154563.stm

[plasticsundance]

18. It will end up a disaster

Afghanistan is far from stable, and just because Karzai won an election still doesn't change the fact that he's just the mayor of Kabul.

Here is an update on Afghanistan:

http://www.alertnet.org/thenews/newsdesk/IRIN/afc581b729dafa28518ea3c2ef6a5ed1.htm


Aid agencies had to operate in tougher security conditions in 2004 than previously with 23 humanitarian workers killed compared to 13 in 2003. The attacks forced them to lower their profiles in some provinces. This was highlighted when medical aid agency Medecins Sans Frontieres (MSF) pulled out of the country in late July because of the killing of five of its staff and the risk of further attacks, ending 24 years in Afghanistan. The deaths led to calls for more government support for aid agencies which often work in isolated provinces. A Taliban spokesman said it carried out the attack, saying MSF staff were working for US interests.

Here's a good article:

http://www.columbiariverpeace.org/Article_Pages/Oil_War/Oil_War.html

First, it is interesting that, UNOCAL's attack of conscience seems only to have been in Afghanistan and not in other areas such as Burma where UNOCAL's investment in the Yadana Gas Pipeline has resulted in an increase in abuses such as extrajudicial killings, torture, rape and extortion.(5) Second, since the overthrow of the Taliban Regime, financing for the project is possible. And, lucky for the oil project, the top position in the post Taliban interim government is US-backed Afghanistanian Hamid Karzai, a former UNOCAL oil consultant. In addition, Bush- nominated Zalmay Khalilad, also a former UNOCAL consultant, is presently the special envoy to Afghanistan, who before Sept 11, among other questionable activities included lobbying for a more sympathetic US Government policy toward the Taliban.

[WannaJumpMyScooter]

20. Like an obvious disaster has ever stopped an Empire

from doing something?

Of course it will be a disaster, that is what affirms their existance!

[Robb]

19. I've always argued it hardly matters if it's Unocal...

...As long as whoever's exploiting the resource is partnered with Unocal (or whoever) elsewhere, that's income earned and resources not used that can be helpful to the company. They don't have to set a single boot in country to benefit, as long as a partner does.

Read this short, short piece I wrote for Bartcop back in.... egad, November 2001. :eyes: