- Reaction score
- 146
- Points
- 710
Letter sent to the Windsor Star:
Mark
Ottawa
Dear Editor,
So Alan Wildeman ("U of W president questions purpose of Afghan mission", Jan. 20) wonders "whether Canadian soldiers were there for oil." One is astounded that a senior educator can be so ill-informed.
Afghanistan has no role in the production or transportation of Central Asian oil, and only a potential, not terribly significant, role regarding natural gas. Most of that oil is in Kazakhstan, far to the west of Afghanistan, and Kazakhstan has no need for Afghanistan as a pipeline route. Kazakh oil is now exported by pipeline via Russia and to China. Kazakhstan is also planning an oil pipeline through its own territory to link up across the Caspian Sea in Azerbaijan with the existing Baku-Tbilisi-Ceyhan pipeline . This pipeline ends at the eastern Mediterranean in Turkey. There are also plans to export Kazakh oil via Iran.
There is a long-standing plan for a natural gas pipeline from Turkmenistan through Afghanistan to Pakistan and (maybe) India. But that is hardly a vital national security or capitalist interest for NATO members. Moreover, given current conditions, such a pipeline is not likely to be built for quite a while. In any case most of the gas would be for Pakistani and perhaps Indian consumption--not a major concern for other countries.
On the other hand there are also plans to export Turkmen gas to Europe via a trans-Caspian pipeline. That plan is a lot more important to European NATO members (and the US) than Afghan pipeline possibilities--especially given the great problems Russia has been causing in the supply of its gas to European customers. The Afghan angle for Turkmen gas exports is truly small beer by comparison.
References:
http://www.globalresearch.ca/index.php?context=va&aid=8277
http://www.globalinsight.com/SDA/SDADetail6096.htm
http://www.redorbit.com/news/business/1280607/kazakhstan_considers_joining_iranian_oil_pipeline_project/index.html
http://www.independent-bangladesh.com/200803313829/business/india-to-join-turkmenistan-afghanistan-pakistan-gas-pipeline.html
http://www.upi.com/International_Security/Energy/Briefing/2008/03/07/azeris_turkmen_agree_on_gas_pipeline/2840/
http://www.globalresearch.ca/index.php?context=va&aid=7538
Mark
Ottawa