Free Republic

ATLANTA -- The pipeline that brings gas to Atlanta from the Gulf Coast is back to 100 percent capacity, Energy Department officials said Tuesday. In addition, 13 of the 15 refineries knocked off line by Hurricanes Ike and Gustav are up and running again. The bad news for metro Atlanta drivers is that even with the Colonial Pipeline running at full steam it will be one to two weeks before supplies across metro Atlanta return to normal. Motorists are rising before dawn so they can be at filling stations when the delivery truck arrives. Some are skipping work or telecommuting....

Borrowing from the nickname for a federal earmark that would have built a multi-million dollar bridge for an Alaska town of 50 people, Newsweek's Mark Hosenball offers readers of the September 29 print magazine a look at "[Gov. Sarah] Palin's Pipeline to Nowhere." Hosenball suggests that Palin's $500-million "principal achievement" as governor "might never be built after all." But while the headline evokes images of the "Bridge to Nowhere," this isn't a case of government waste as much as it is of the endless red tape of lawsuits.: Approximately half of the proposed pipeline would run through Canada; native tribes...

Prime Minister Vladimir Putin met with former German Chancellor Gerhard Schroder a week after a U.S. diplomat criticized a planned Gazprom gas pipeline under the Baltic Sea. Putin received Schroder, who chairs the Nord Stream pipeline project, and Gazprom chief executive Alexei Miller at the Black Sea resort of Sochi on Thursday, state-run broadcaster Vesti-24 reported. Nord Stream, which Gazprom plans to build with Wintershall, E.On Ruhrgas and Nederlandse Gasunie, will supply consumers in Germany, France, Britain, the Netherlands and Denmark, Putin said. Other partners in the project may still be considered, he added. Last week, U.S. Ambassador to Sweden...

Nigeria: The main armed group claims to have destroyed a Shell pipeline LAGOS - The main armed group in southern Nigeria, Mend said they had destroyed Thursday evening a "significant pipeline" and belonging to Anglo-Dutch company Shell. At 17:30 GMT, "fighters of the Movement for the Emancipation of the Niger Delta have destroyed with powerful explosives, a major oil pipeline belonging to Shell Development Company," in Rivers State in southern Nigeria's oil, said a press release the group.

The European Union has offered to help Nigeria develop plans for a trans-Saharan pipeline to take gas from Nigeria to Europe. The offer was made during a visit by the EU's energy commissioner to the Nigerian capital. The move is part of plans to reduce EU reliance on Russian energy supplies. It comes after Russia's Gazprom expressed interest in the pipeline and signed a memorandum of understanding with the Nigerian government. The memorandum covers co-operation in the exploration, development and transportation of gas reserves. Europe is increasingly worried about its dependence on Russian gas, especially after Russia's action in Georgia...

The statement by Yuriy Buligin, a representative of the Russian chamber of commerce, that the ratification of the natural gas and oil agreement by the Serbian Assembly does not also mean that the construction of South Stream will begin has once more raised the question of what the actual future is of that alternative gas pipeline, which is supposed to be an energy link between Russia and Europe. Buligin's position is interpreted as an effort to occupy a better starting position on the eve of the resumption of Serbia's negotiations with Gazprom concerning the construction of South Stream and the...

A group of suspected smugglers are to go on trial for pumping thousands of litres of cheap Russian vodka into the European Union through an underwater pipeline. The accused built a 2-kilometre pipeline through a reservoir that marks the Russian-Estonian border, and managed to pump 6,200 litres of spirits across before getting caught.

WASHINGTON - On her only visit to Canada, Governor Sarah Palin of Alaska traveled to Whitehorse, the capital of neighboring Yukon territory, where she advocated for a proposed oil pipeline and discussed mutual border concerns, according to public reports. On the day trip in June 2007, Palin met with Yukon Premier Dennis Fentie to discuss the possible benefits to Canada from a new pipeline that will tap Alaska's Prudhoe Bay oil reserves, and both pledged to lobby to ensure that new American passport regulations would not hamper trade and tourism between Alaska and the adjacent Yukon.

The European Union, increasingly anxious to reduce its dependence on Russian gas following the conflict in Georgia, has offered Nigeria financial and political backing for a €15bn ($21bn, £12bn) trans-Saharan pipeline to pump its gas directly to Europe. Renewed European interest in the project comes against a backdrop of mounting fears that Gazprom, the Russian gas monopoly, is intent on winning access to Nigeria's vast gas reserves as part of a strategy to tighten its grip on energy supplies to Europe. Gazprom, which has also offered to back the planned 4,300km pipeline, appeared to steal a march on its European...

How The West Was Won The rapid and unexpected decline of the Sunni insurgency in Iraq was officially recognized this week, when Maj. Gen. John Kelly, commanding the Marine Expeditionary Force, turned operational control of Anbar Province over to the Iraqi army and police. Anbar, a vast expanse of desert the size of North Carolina, had been the stronghold of the Sunni insurgency. For years, foreign fighters loyal to al-Qaida had sneaked across Iraq's northwestern border with Syria, into Anbar and down a "rat line" of safe houses in Haditha, Ramadi and Hit. From Fallujah, the arch terrorist Zarqawi...

Sen. Ron Wyden (D-OR) made headlines this week by decrying the export of LNG from Alaska to Japan and complaining about the high price of natural gas. Oh, the hypocrisy. Wyden and other Left Coast liberals such as Sen. Dianne Feinstein (D-CA) and my governor, Ted Kulongowski (D-OR), have done everything they can to stonewall LNG terminals proposed for the West Coast, including three proposed terminals right here in Oregon. There are currently no LNG terminals on the U.S. West Coast, the nearest terminal is across the border from San Diego in Baja California. The Baja terminal just opened two...

ANCHORAGE — When Gov. Sarah Palin of Alaska took center stage at the Republican convention last week, she sought to burnish her executive credentials by telling how she had engineered the deal that jump-started a long-delayed gas pipeline project. Stretching more than 1,700 miles, it would deliver natural gas from the North Slope of Alaska to the lower 48 states and be the largest private-sector infrastructure project on the continent. “And when that deal was struck, we began a nearly $40 billion natural gas pipeline to help lead America to energy independence,” said Ms. Palin, the Republican vice-presidential nominee. “That...

Palin’s Pipeline Is Years From Being a Reality By SERGE F. KOVALESKI and MIKE McINTIRE ANCHORAGE — When Gov. Sarah Palin of Alaska took center stage at the Republican convention last week, she sought to burnish her executive credentials by telling how she had engineered the deal that jump-started a long-delayed gas pipeline project. Stretching more than 1,700 miles, it would deliver natural gas from the North Slope of Alaska to the lower 48 states and be the largest private-sector infrastructure project on the continent. “And when that deal was struck, we began a nearly $40 billion natural gas pipeline...

PEOPLE ARE still buzzing about Republican vice presidential nominee Sarah Palin's acceptance speech. But while her style has been minutely analyzed, very little commentary has focused on one of the few substantive claims she made about her brief tenure as governor of Alaska: that she "fought to bring about the largest private-sector infrastructure project in North American history . . . a nearly $40 billion natural gas pipeline to help lead America to energy independence." Is Ms. Palin right about the importance of the pipeline and her role in moving it forward? Ms. Palin is indeed correct about the need...

Surprisingly positive editorial in the Washington Post about how Gov. Palin stood up to Big Oil for the benefit of the people of Alaska. ### PEOPLE ARE still buzzing about Republican vice presidential nominee Sarah Palin's acceptance speech. But while her style has been minutely analyzed, very little commentary has focused on one of the few substantive claims she made about her brief tenure as governor of Alaska: that she "fought to bring about the largest private-sector infrastructure project in North American history . . . a nearly $40 billion natural gas pipeline to help lead America to energy independence."...

Piecing together the Palin puzzle Statements made during her campaign shed light on Alaska governor-elect’s strategies and plans regarding major oil and gas issuesAlan BaileyPetroleum NewsSarah Palin’s gubernatorial campaign slogan “New Energy for Alaska” promised a fresh look at Alaska’s future and hinted that the energy industry would feature high on her administration’s agenda. But now that the campaign dust has started to settle, it’s worth a look at what the governor-elect said and what it might mean for Alaska’s oil and gas industry.The hoped-for North Slope natural gas pipeline clearly sits at the top of the new administration’s priorities....

To most Americans, Senator John McCain's [R-Ariz.] choice of running mate, Alaska Governor Sarah Palin, is a new face. To Alaskans, however, she's the woman who got a giant natural gas pipeline project off the ground, in part by telling big oil companies they'd get no sweetheart deals. Despite the national debate about drilling in the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge [ANWR], Alaskans largely favor development of their natural resources, a huge source of revenue for the state. For years, Alaskan officials have been dickering with the state's largest producers, ExxonMobil (XOM), BP (BP), and ConocoPhillips (COP), over construction of a...

It’s official. Gov. Sarah Palin has signed bills passed by the Alaska Legislature in special session in early August starting TransCanada Alaska on its way toward a proposed gas pipeline from the North Slope to market and providing relief for Alaskans from the high cost of energy. The governor signed bills for an energy rebate and related measures Aug. 25. On Aug. 27 at an Alaska AFL-CIO conference in Anchorage she signed the bill approving the issuance of an Alaska Gasline Inducement Act license to TransCanada. TransCanada, although it won’t receive its AGIA license for 90 days, has already started...

Vladimir Putin, the Russian prime minister, intensified the Kremlin's pressure on Europe over energy supplies by demanding a fresh completion date for a pipeline project linking its resources to Asia. The announcement on the eve of Monday's Brussels summit on Russia's occupation of Georgia To stave off tough measures, including possible sanctions, Moscow has sent a variety of signals that it will use its energy clout to retaliate against any European reprimand for its refusal to implement a ceasefire with Georgia. Russia's Asian pipeline is a technically challenging effort to link the oilfields of Eastern Siberia to Russia's Pacific coast...

Palin, for example, represents the frontier. Alaska and its energy development are at the forefront of American interests. As oil prices soar to record levels, the state's oil and gas could free the U.S. from the tyranny of hostile foreign oil suppliers — including Russia, Iran and Venezuela — that are using high prices to amass power and create trouble abroad. Palin has been a strong voice for liberating her state's energy for the benefit of the nation. Her recent legislative victory establishing a 7,200-mile natural gas pipeline across North America — after 30 years of failure — is a...

Presidential candidate Barack Obama is touting the Alaska natural gas pipeline. Obama included the project in the energy plan he announced this week, calling for working "with the Canadian government to finally build the Alaska natural gas pipeline, delivering clean natural gas and creating good jobs in the process." That brought the Democrat kudos from Gov. Sarah Palin, who some pundits are pushing as a possible vice presidential running mate for Republican John McCain...

On Aug. 1, the same day the call for a vote on drilling began on the House floor, the Alaska state Senate approved a package of measures to license a new natural gas pipeline. ... The legislature had been trying for 30 years to authorize something like this and, up until now, had blown it. Palin got it through...

Saturday, August 30, 2008 Joe Biden and the Trans-Alaska Pipeline System Sen. Joseph Biden of Delaware, Democratic presidential candidate Barack Obama's choice for vice president, has been a senator since 1972. He is one of only five senators who were present in 1973 when Congress passed legislation authorizing construction of the trans-Alaska pipeline system (TAPS). Biden, then 30, was the youngest member of the Senate and not a leader in the lengthy debate over the pipeline. But his voting record is striking - at least to an Alaskan interested in history. Biden was a reliable "no" on TAPS. In July,...

Sen. Joseph Biden of Delaware, Democratic presidential candidate Barack Obama's choice for vice president, has been a senator since 1972. He is one of only five senators who were present in 1973 when Congress passed legislation authorizing construction of the trans-Alaska pipeline system (TAPS). Biden, then 30, was the youngest member of the Senate and not a leader in the lengthy debate over the pipeline. But his voting record is striking - at least to an Alaskan interested in history. Biden was a reliable "no" on TAPS. In July, when the Senate passed the Gravel-Stevens amendment allowing immediate construction of...

Pentagon Makes Fighting Extremism Top Priority Seven years after the Sept. 11 attacks, the Pentagon on Thursday officially named "the long war" against global extremism as its top priority and pledged to avert any conventional military threat from China or Russia through dialogue. The Defense Department, in a new national defense strategy, also emphasized the need to subordinate military operations to "soft power" initiatives to undermine Islamist militancy by promoting economic, political and social development in vulnerable corners of the world. Defense Secretary Robert Gates said he hoped the change would help establish permanent institutional support for counterinsurgency skills...

https://uascentral.uas.alaska.edu/onlinelib/Spring-2008/ALST600-JD1/Menge_GasPresentation_May10.pdfhttp://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Alaskan_Natural_Gas_Pipelinehttp://www.ferc.gov/industries/gas/indus-act/angtp.asp Basically, the Alaska Natural Gas Pipeline has been fumbled about for a few years now. Work is finally started on it, and legislation appears to be passed on it. It is a coup for the state of Alaska, but it is also a coup for the Western United States as well the Plains states and Northern Midwest (Minnesota and Wisconsin). If one can imagine getting 45 billion cubic feet of natural gas to the lower 48 each day, one has an idea of the benefit of this project. Because of our dependence on foreign oil, I would have...

Gov. Sarah Palin on Wednesday signed a bill giving the state authority to award TransCanada Corp TRP.T a license to build and operate a multibillion-dollar pipeline to ship natural gas from the North Slope. The line, which the company estimates will cost $26 billion to build, would ship about 4 billion cubic feet of natural gas a day starting in 2018, according to TransCanada's plan. Two big oil producers, BP (BP.L: Quote, Profile, Research, Stock Buzz) and ConocoPhillips (COP.N: Quote, Profile, Research, Stock Buzz), are pushing a competing natural gas pipeline plan. But the license to TransCanada would ensure that...

A major fire-damaged oil pipeline carrying crude from Azerbaijan to Turkey has returned to normal operations, BP's spokesperson in Baku said on Monday. The first cargo would be lifted on Tuesday. "We ramped up the flow over the weekend, and we're still ramping now but effectively we're back to normal operations," said Tamam Bayatlı, the spokesperson of BP, which operates the Baku-Tbilisi-Ceyhan (BTC) pipeline. Bayatli also confirmed that the Baku-Supsa pipeline remained closed as a "precaution" given the security situation in Georgia but that the situation was under constant assessment and the pipeline could be reopened as soon as it...

For more than a year, much of the news from the oil industry hasn’t exactly been positive. The price for a barrel of oil reached record highs and seemingly a daily basis, and the quarterly profit statements by the major oil companies hit records as well. With U.S. drivers paying previously unheard-of prices to fill up their tanks, the oil industry was the enemy. This was true here in Southeast Texas, even though oil is a crucial element of the region’s economy. Oil and pump prices have eased recently, and that’s not the only reason the blood pressure of area...

President Bush urged Moscow to abandon two Soviet-era military bases in Georgia as he met on Wednesday with the newly elected leader of the strategically placed Caucasus state. Sitting with President Mikhail Saakashvili in the Oval Office, Bush told reporters he would help build good relations between Georgia and Russia. He said Russia should honor a promise to remove the bases, which it made during the 1999 Istanbul summit of the Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe. "The Istanbul commitment made it very clear that Russia would leave those bases," Bush said after a closed-door meeting with Saakashvili, whose...

LONDON (Reuters) - BP (BP.L: Quote, Profile, Research) said on Wednesday exports of Azeri oil from Turkey should resume next week after repairs to the $4 billion (2.1 billion pounds) Baku-Tbilisi-Ceyhan (BTC) pipeline damaged by a fire two weeks ago. The line can pump up to 1 million barrels per day of oil, equal to more than 1 percent of world supply, from fields in the Azeri part of the Caspian Sea to Ceyhan in Turkey. Its closure had supported world oil prices, which fell initially on news that it was reopening. "We've taken the decision to start dynamic integrity...

Prompted by refinery expansions, Houston partnership is planning a $2 billion terminal 36 miles off the coast of Freeport ... Enterprise Products Partners and TEPPCO Partners, both affiliated with Houston billionaire Dan Duncan, and the German company Oiltanking Holdings Americas, call the project the Texas Offshore Port System — TOPS. It would include two floating connections for supertankers to unload crude, 160-miles of pipelines to bring the oil onshore and along the coast to refineries in Houston, Port Arthur and Beaumont, as well as new onshore storage for more than 5 million barrels of crude. ... When it begins operations,...

WASHINGTON - It was surely not lost on Russia's bully in chief, Vladimir Putin, that the oil giant BP decided to shut down the pipeline that runs through parts of Georgia controlled by Russian troops. Indeed, that was one of the aims of the cross-border incursion. Putin understands better than anyone that oil and natural gas are the source of Russia's resurgence as a military and economic power and his own control over the Russian government and key sectors of its economy. It is oil and gas that provide the money to maintain Russia's powerful military, along with a vast...

The crisis in Georgia has focused minds on the supply of oil to western Europe via lines that cross - and avoid - Russia. Russell Hotten considers the prospects for the embattled democracy The sight of bombed-out buildings and Russian tanks descending on villages in Georgia has underlined that for all its investment potential, this vast stretch of the globe remains a powder keg. Moscow has not just sent a message to several former Soviet states not to step out of line, it has sent a signal to Europe about the fragility and security of its economic interests. Television pictures...

In both geopolitical and economic terms, the United States appears a loser in the Russia-Georgia conflict. If the pipeline crossing Georgia, bringing approximately a million barrels of Caspian oil a day to the West, remains shut down for much longer, it could result in higher oil prices. "We could see $4 a gallon gasoline again," warns Edward Yardeni, an American consulting economist. The 1,100-mile Baku-Tbilisi-Ceyhan (BTC) pipeline provides only about 1 percent of the global demand for oil. But, as Prof. Michael Klare of Amherst College notes: "There's not a lot of spare [crude oil] capacity" in the world. In...

OTTAWA and TORONTO -- In early 2002, some 200 U.S. Special Forces soldiers landed in the former Soviet republic of Georgia to train the Georgian army in anti-terrorism techniques, including how to protect a planned oil pipeline from secessionist or anti-Western saboteurs. With strong encouragement from Washington, Georgia was finalizing a deal with its neighbours, Azerbaijan and Turkey, and Britain's BP PLC to build a $3.9-billion (U.S.) pipeline from the oil-rich Caspian region to the Turkish port of Ceyhan on the Mediterranean Sea. The 1,768-kilometre, somewhat-circuitous route bypassed major U.S. rivals in the region, Russia and Iran, as well as...

A Turkish energy ministry official confirmed that the BTC pipeline blast was a terrorist act. But what’s more, Russia’s international politics advisor to the Russian Duma declared the pipeline “dead” and that it would never operate again. An adviser to the Russian parliament also claimed the closed pipeline would not be opened again and declared the line is “dead”. “The world and countries in the region have seen that not NATO, but Russia is the only one who could secure the energy routes,” Alexander Dugin, international politics advisor to the Russia’s Duma, told Turkish Cumhuriyet daily. “In this context, regarding...

Energy: As congressional Democrats dither on a vote for oil drilling, Alaska Gov. Sarah Palin has pushed through a gas pipeline project to bring new supply and price relief to the lower 48. On Aug. 1, the same day the call for a vote on drilling began on the House floor, the Alaska state Senate approved a package of measures to license a new natural gas pipeline. House Bill 3001 lets Palin award the Alaska Gasline Inducement Act license to TransCanada Alaska, a pipeline builder that cast a winning bid of five.

Energy: As congressional Democrats dither on a vote for oil drilling, Alaska Gov. Sarah Palin has pushed through a gas pipeline project to bring new supply and price relief to the lower 48.On Aug. 1, the same day the call for a vote on drilling began on the House floor, the Alaska state Senate approved a package of measures to license a new natural gas pipeline. House Bill 3001 lets Palin award the Alaska Gasline Inducement Act license to TransCanada Alaska, a pipeline builder that cast a winning bid of five. The legislature had been trying for 30 years to...

Georgia Conflict - Open Thread #4 Posted by Gail the Actuary on August 15, 2008 - 10:08am Topic: Policy/PoliticsTags: georgia, pipelines, russia [list all tags] Russia has won in the conflict in Georgia, and we are in the process of sorting out what happens next. Various ones have written what they see happening. GEORGIA-RUSSIA CONFLICT SHOWS EU'S ENERGY VULNERABILITY But this week's offensive, during which British Petroleum shut down an oil pipeline and temporarily stopped pumping gas through Georgia, has called into question plans for a Eurasian corridor free from Russian interference. "The Caspian region is wondering what this...

Geopolitics: Russia's aggression is not only about toppling a pro-Western democracy and potential NATO member. It's about the only pipeline bringing Caspian Sea oil to the West not controlled by Moscow or Iran.Georgia is only the latest instance of Russia's plans to reassemble the "evil empire" and neuter NATO expansion, using energy as both a weapon and a means of financing its rapid military expansion. Russia has doubled its military in the past five years, thanks in large part to the "windfall profits" it has reaped from skyrocketing energy prices. One of the Russian targets in Georgia is a pipeline...

In late 2006, China for the first time in its history became a net coal importer. This changed the dyanmics of the world's energy market. Korea and Japan, previously importers of Chinese coal, were sent scrambling for alternative sources of energy. What they found in the winter of 2007 was LNG for $18-$20/BTU. China too was a willing buyer. The coal scramble was also felt in Europe. Australian coal was bottlenecked and/or kept in the Asian region. Power outages in South African coal mines made the situation worse for Europeans as they lost out on significant supply. What followed was...

What we've been reminded once again is that Vladimir Putin is perfectly willing to sacrifice the rule of law and the good opinion of others to protect the Russian empire and the energy monopoly that sustains it. The techniques he used to bring Georgia to heel, while more lethal and destructive, have the same thuggish quality as the techniques Putin uses to silence domestic opposition and to expropriate the energy assets of Yukos, Shell and BP.

LONDON (AFP) — British energy giant BP said Tuesday that it has closed two more oil and gas pipelines in Georgia because of the ongoing conflict with Russia. "We have closed two other pipelines in Georgia -- Baku-Supsa and the South Caucasus pipeline, which is a gas pipeline," a BP spokesman told AFP. The key Baku-Tbilisi-Ceyhan (BTC) pipeline, which BP also operates, was shut last week after a blast occurred in a pump at a section in eastern Turkey. Russia's armed forces on Tuesday denied deliberately targeting the strategic BTC conduit running through Georgia after Tbilisi claimed it had been...

The farther Russia's tanks roll into Georgia, the more the world is beginning to see the reality of Vladimir Putin's Napoleonic ambitions. Having consolidated his authoritarian transition as Prime Minister with a figurehead President, Mr. Putin is now pushing to reassert Russian dominance in Eurasia. Ukraine is in his sights, and even the Baltic states could be threatened if he's allowed to get away with it. The West needs to draw a line at Georgia. No matter who fired the first shot last week in the breakaway Georgian region of South Ossetia, Moscow is using the separatist issue as an...

<p>RUSTAVI, Georgia — Russian jets targeted a key oil pipeline in Georgia yesterday with more than 50 missiles in a raid that raised fears that the conflict would tighten Moscow's stranglehold on Europe's energy supplies.</p> <p>Deep craters pockmarked the landscape south of the Georgian capital, Tbilisi, in a Y-shaped pattern straddling the British-operated pipeline. The attack left two deep holes less than 100 yards either side of a pressure vent on the pipeline. Shrapnel of highly engineered munitions littered the area, but there was no visible damage to the pipeline.</p>

Russian jets targeted a key oil pipeline with over 50 missiles in a weekend bombing raid in Georgia that raised fears the conflict will tighten Moscow's stranglehold on Europe's energy supplies. Deep craters pockmark the landscape south of the Georgian capital Tblisi in a Y-shaped pattern straddling the British-operated pipeline. The attack left two deep holes less than 100 yards either side of a pressure vent on the pipeline. Shrapnel of highly engineered munitions litters the area. There was no visible damage to the pipeline. Its vulnerability is summed up by a yellow hazard sign next to the vent warning...

BP is facing a second front in the former Soviet Union after Russian jets were reported to have launched a bombing raid on its main pipeline in Georgia, raising fears that Moscow was moving to increase its stranglehold on Europe's energy supplies. The oil giant is the biggest of more than 100 British companies operating in Georgia that have unwittingly become embroiled in the war between Russia and its neighbour. The FTSE company is already fighting a protracted battle with four Russia oligarchs for control of TNK-BP. Robert Dudley, the chief executive of the joint venture, was last month forced...

News reports indicate that Russia may have tried to bomb the Baku-Tbilisi-Ceyhan pipeline, which runs through Georgia. If so, the bombs missed, and flow of oil through the pipeline was not interrupted. The BTC pipeline runs from the Caspian Sea to the Mediterranean coast of Turkey; note Russia to the north and Iran to the south:

LONDON (AFP)--Western concerns are growing over the impact of the conflict between Georgia and Russia on a key oil pipeline through the region from the Caspian Sea to the West, analysts say. While Georgia doesn't produce oil itself, U.S. and European energy firms have counted on the pro-Western country - sandwiched between Russia and Iran further south - to host a conduit for oil and gas exports from Azerbaijan.