Pipeline Politics: The Caspian and Global Energy Security

by John Roberts

The landlocked Caspian states Azerbaijan, Kazakhstan, and Turkmenistan lie at the heart of the 21st century's great energy how to satisfy the industrialized world's huge appetite while slaking the tremendous thirst of the new industrial giants China, India, and Russia. Multi-billion-dollar pipelines are being built, planned or expanded to carry Caspian oil and gas to all these markets. But in an atmosphere of intense competition and rivalry, not all these projects will bear fruit in a timely fashion. Over it all looms the question that underpins the so-called New Great Game. Is the goal to make everyone a winner, or to secure control of energy supplies and distribution from source to customer?In this authoritative work, a successor to his 1996 Chatham House study Caspian Pipelines, John Roberts sets the ongoing saga of Caspian pipeline politics against the background of global energy security, including security of demand and transit as well as of supply.Roberts assesses development of new pipelines to China and India; EU hopes for new ways to access Caspian hydrocarbons; the question of Bosphorus bypasses; and how Russia's influence as producer, consumer, and key transit corridor is shaping the world's energy future.

Paperback

First published May 1, 2008