JANUARY 2008
International Developments we should Keep in Mind, the great game.
`If regime change were initiated in Iran or Russia or one of the Central Asian republics the energy network being consolidated and strengthened between Russia, Central Asia, and Iran could be obstructed and ruined. This is why the U.S. and Britain have been desperately promoting covert and overt velvet revolutions in the Caucasus, Iran, Russia, Belarus, Ukraine, and Central Asia.However,Russia and Iran are also the nations with the largest natural gas reserves in the world. This is in addition to the following facts; Iran also exerts influence over the Straits of Hormuz; both Russia and Iran control the export of Central Asian energy to global markets; and Syria is the lynchpin for an Eastern Mediterranean energy corridor. Iran, Russia, and Syria will now exercise a great deal of control and influence over these energy corridors and by extension the nations that are dependent on them in the European continent. This is another reason why Russia has built military facilities on the Mediterranean shores of Syria. The Iran-Pakistan-
To add to all this, American and British allies by their very despotic and self-concerned natures will not hesitate to realign themselves, if presented with the opportunity, with Russia, China, and Iran. These puppet regimes and so-called allies, from Saudi Arabia and Kuwait to Egypt, have no personal loyalties and are fair-weather allies. If they can help it, the moment they believe that they can no longer benefit from their relationships as clients they will try to abandon the Anglo-American camp without hesitation. Any hesitation on their part will be in regards to their own political longevity. Iran, Russia, and China have already been in the long process of courting the leaders of the Arab Sheikhdoms of the Persian Gulf.
The ultimate aim of Russo-Iranian energy cooperation will be the establishment of a north-south energy corridor from the Baltic Sea to the Persian Gulf and with the Caspian Sea as its mid-axis. An east-west corridor from the Caspian Sea, Iran, and Central Asia to India and China will also be linked to this. Iranian oil could also be transported to Europe through Russian territory, hence bypassing the sea and consolidating Russo-Iranian control over international energy security. If other states in the Persian Gulf were included into the equation a dramatic seismic shift in the global balance of power could occur. This is also one of the reasons that the oil-rich Arab Sheikhdoms are being courted by Russia, Iran, and China.
The title “Great Game” is a term that originates from the struggle between Britain and Czarist Russia to control significant portions of Eurasia. The term is attributed to Arthur Conolly. A romanticized British novel, Kim, written by Rudyard Kipling and published in 1901 arguably immortalized the concept and term. This Victorian novel was a suspenseful story about the competition between Czarist Russia and Britain to control the vast geographic stretch that included Central Asia, India, and Tibet. In reality the “Great Game” was a struggle for control of a vast geographic area that not only included Tibet, the Indian sub-continent, and Central Asia, but also included the Caucasus and Iran. Additionally, it was London that was the primary antagonist, because of British attempts to enter Russian Central Asia. In fact the British had spying networks and facilities in Khorason, Iran and in Afghanistan that would operate against the interests of St. Petersburg in Russian Central Asia.
A
contemporary version of the “Great Game” is
being played once again for control of roughly the same
geographic stretch, but with more players and greater
intensity. Central Asia became the focus of international
rivalry after the collapse of the former U.S.S.R. and the
end of the Cold War. For the most part Central Asia,
aside from Afghanistan, has been insulated. It has
been the Middle East and the Balkans where
this contest has been playing itself out violently.
The “Great Game” has also taken new dimensions
and has entered the Mediterranean. This gradual
outward movement has been creeping in a westward
direction from the Middle East and the Balkans as the
area of contention is expanded. This is not a
one-directional competition. With the drawing in of
Algeria, this push has reached the Western Mediterranean
or the “Latin Sea” as Halford J. Mackinder
refers to it, whereas before it was limited to the
Eastern Mediterranean. This extension of the area of the
“Great Game” is also a result of the outward
push from Eurasia of the Eurasian-based alliance of
Russia, Iran, and China. Examples of this are the
emerging inroads China is making in the African continent
and Iran’s alliances in Latin America.
The Mediterranean has literally become an
extension to the international and dangerous rivalries
for control of Central Asian and Caucasian energy
resources. Libya, Syria, Lebanon, Algeria, and Egypt are
all Arab countries involved. Algeria already supplies gas
to the E.U. through the Trans-Mediterranean Pipeline
which runs to the Italian island of
Sicily via Tunisia and the Mediterranean Sea.
Niger and Nigeria are also building a natural gas
pipeline that will reach the E.U. via
Algerian energy infrastructure. Libya also
supplies gas to the E.U through the Greenstream Pipeline
which connects to Sicily via an underwater route in the
Mediterranean Sea.
Russia and Iran are spearheading a move to bring Algeria
into their orbit in order to establish a gas cartel. If
Algeria, and possibly Libya, can be brought into the
orbits of Moscow and Tehran the leverage and influence of
both would be greatly increased and both would tighten
their control over global energy corridors and European
energy supplies. Approximately 97 percent of
the projected amount of natural gas that will be
imported by continental Europe would be controlled by
Russia, Iran, and Syria under such an arrangement,
whereas without Algeria approximately 93.6
percent of the natural gas exported would be
controlled. [11] Algeria is also the sixth largest
exporter of oil to the U.S., following behind Canada,
Mexico, Saudi Arabia, Venezuela, and Nigeria.
Western and Central European energy security would be
under tight controls from Russia, Iran, Turkey, Algeria,
and Syria because of their control over the geo-strategic
energy routes. This is one of the reasons that the E.U.
has unsuccessfully tried to force Russia to sign an E.U.
energy charter that would obligate Moscow to supply
energy to the E.U. and one of the reasons that
NATO is considering using Article 5 of its military
charter for energy security. [12] In
addition, the Security and Prosperity Partnership of
North America obligates America’s top energy
sources, Canada and Mexico, to supply the U.S.
with oil and gas. Worldwide the securing of energy
resources has become an issue of force and involuntary
compulsion.
CORRIB GAS PROJECT
IT IS SAID :The Corrib gas reservoir began its
life some 250 million years ago in what is known as the
Triassic Period.
- Corrib gas is held inside the pores of a “reservoir rock” which constitutes the gas reservoir. The gas is trapped in the reservoir by a layer of impermeable rock above it. Only when the rock is drilled into can the gas be extracted.
- The Corrib Field lies under the Atlantic Ocean, approximately 83 km off the coast of County Mayo, in 350 metres of water. The distance from the seabed to the Corrib reservoir is a further 3,000 metres.
- The
Corrib Field was discovered by carrying out a
seismic survey. A survey ship bounced shockwaves
at the seabed. The noise recorded by the
shockwaves as they bounced back gave experts
vital clues that there was gas below. Click
here
for a video presentation of a seismic survey in
operation
- In 1996, a semi-submersible rig drilled an exploration well to investigate if hydrocarbons were present.
- Between 1998 and 2001, four more exploration wells were drilled to gain a better idea of the size and scope of the Corrib reservoir. Samples of rock (known as cores) were taken from thousands of metres below the seabed for analysis.
- Reservoir
engineers used data to generate complex computer
models to estimate how much gas was present in
the Corrib reservoir and how it could be
produced.
Sedco 711 Donates Old TV Sets off Rigs To Three Killybegs National Schools - must we bow down in thanks just before they become useless in the digital TV age?
As the new school year begins, children in three Killybegs national schools "will be completely in the picture" thanks to the generosity of Transocean who operate the Sedco 711 drilling rig. The rig is drilling for gas in the Corrib field and has donated twenty TV sets to the Niall Mor, Commons and Mintra National Schools in Killybegs."It was decided to replace all the TV sets on the Sedco 711 drilling rig, which is owned by Transocean and is working of the west coast of Ireland for Shell E&P Ltd. after talking with the rig manager, Keith Miller, it was agreed that the old sets be donated to schools in the Killybegs area," said Mr. Boyle.Killybegs is the operations base for all the major oil and gas exploration companies working off the Irish west and north-west coasts
