Oil pipelines in South Ossetia?
I heard there was war in Georgia. And being in the center of so many fossil fuel pipelines, I did a quick search to see if any of those pipelines traverse South Ossetia.
Based on these maps, it appears as though no pipelines go through South Ossetia... though the conflict appears to be within a relatively short distance of the Baku-Supsa (or Western Early) pipeline.
Here you can see the US Department of Energy's maps of the oil pipelines. It indicates the Baku-Tblisi-Ceyhan oil pipeline runs through south Georgia... while the Baku-Supsa pipeline runs through central Georgia: 
And here's a map of South Ossetia's location in the Caucasus region. It was created by Wadim and I found it over on Wikipedia. It shows South Ossetia is located in northern Georgia:
For a more detailed map of the South Ossetia warzone, this map was authored by the International Crisis Group:
It shows their interpretation of the current conflict zone lying 10 - 15 miles north of the city of Gori.
Furthermore, if you click thru and scroll down, you'll see this US Dept of Energy map shows Georgia's fossil fuel pipelines running scantly north of Gori. Also on that webpage... you'll find some interesting info on the influence of big business in Georgia. And here is an example of the US State Department supporting big business in Georgia.
Tim White
3 comments:
Very interesting. Thanks for the info and insight, Tim.
This is the stuff that really got me interested in politics... back when I lived in Vietnam ('95-'98).
Then I returned to Cheshire and went to a town meeting with my dad.
When I heard about sewers and schools, I figured I might actually be able to make a difference at a local level... much moreso than dealing with this stuff.
I still find global geopolitics fascinating though. And if you do some googling... the stuff (including speculation) I read about this today is pretty surprising.
For instance, Georgia is the third biggest force in Iraq... 2,000 men.
So Georgia is a big US ally... that actually trains with American soldiers in Georgia.
And there was an attack on the Baku-Tblisi-Ceyhan pipeline in Turkey... only days before this.
Frankly, I can't even figure out what most of these people (online) are getting at. It's way over my head.
But I do know that I picked up an international history book (copyright 1950s) at the Historical Society a couple years ago... and do you know the focus of the book from 50 years ago?
The Caucasus... and who controlled it.
Here in America, it's a little discussed region of the world. But it merits at least a bit of discussion.
George Bush was very upset until he found out Atlanta was not bombed. He contacted the governor and told him that FEMA had been sent a request for help and should respond in a few weeks.
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