Jihokavkazské produktovody a kaspická "ropná diplomacie" ; Oil and Gas Transit Lines in the South Caucasus and Caspian "Oil Diplomacy"

Abstract

This study is an attempt to deliver a comprehensive (geo)political analysis of the evolution of transit routes to supply Caspian oil and natural gas reserves to world markets using the territory of the South Caucasus. In the initial part of the study, a series of transit options prevailing in the two decades up to 2005 is scrutinized; in 2005, the highly debated Baku-Tbilisi-Ceyhan oil pipeline was eventually built marking the shift in interest from oil transit to natural gas transit. Emphasizing the peculiarities of geopolitical competition for the strategically important area of the post-Soviet South Caucasus that has been continuing between Russia, the United States, and to a certain extent also Iran and Turkey, the article seeks to explore the close interconnection of politics and economics, and on some key occasions also the prevalence of the former over the latter, reaching in this regard beyond Caspian projects.