Prospects of export routes for Kashagan oil

This article examines the promising oil and gas developments in Kazakhstan, and more specifically, it seeks to answer the question of how the Kashagan oil field will be developed. What might be the geopolitical consequences of this project for the Caspian Basin? The pipeline issue has arisen regarding the giant Kashagan field in Kazakhstan with the same issues that emerged in the previous BTC project in the region. By discussing possible alternative routes available to the Kazakh government other than the Russian oil pipeline network, I will put forward the most likely scenario in terms of which pipeline to be used in bringing that oil to market. In doing so, this article will contribute to the discussion of which export routes will be chosen for the energy development of the Caspian Basin?Caspian Kazakhstan Kashagan

Security concerns in the Middle East for oil supply: Problems and solutions

Comprising 65-70% of the world's oil reserves, the Gulf States (Saudi Arabia, Iran, Iraq, Kuwait, UAE and Qatar) are key countries for the solutions to the energy supply matters of the world. Free flow of oil to the world markets from Gulf region is an indispensable part of the major security issues. The Middle East has had mainly security related problems such as Arab-Israeli wars and conflicts, Arab-Iranian war and conflicts, Arab-Arab war and conflicts, US-Gulf wars and conflicts and more recently radicalism and terrorist attacks. Energy supply security requires the enhancement of the peace and cooperation between countries instead of competition. Preventive policy approaches are more suitable to address energy supply matters. Preventive strategy might be possible with the active participation of NATO within the "out of area" type operations to the Middle East and quite possibly indirectly to the Asia-Pacific regions. Religious and ethnic radicalism and terrorist attacks has also direct effects over oil supply security matters. (c) 2006 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved