• 3 minutes e-car sales collapse
  • 6 minutes America Is Exceptional in Its Political Divide
  • 11 minutes Perovskites, a ‘dirt cheap’ alternative to silicon, just got a lot more efficient
  • 2 hours GREEN NEW DEAL = BLIZZARD OF LIES
  • 7 days If hydrogen is the answer, you're asking the wrong question
  • 13 hours How Far Have We Really Gotten With Alternative Energy
  • 11 days Biden's $2 trillion Plan for Insfrastructure and Jobs

Breaking News:

Oil Prices Gain 2% on Tightening Supply

Kazakhstan Looks to Close Water-Management Deal with China

Kazakhstan Looks to Close Water-Management Deal with China

Kazakhstan’s Ministry of Water Resources…

Why Russia Wants To Revive The TAPI Pipeline

Why Russia Wants To Revive The TAPI Pipeline

The revival of the Turkmenistan–Afghanistan–Pakistan–India…

Russian Firms Push Surveillance Tech In Central Asia

Russian Firms Push Surveillance Tech In Central Asia

Russian tech firms are creating…

The Jamestown Foundation

The Jamestown Foundation

Founded in 1984, The Jamestown Foundation is an independent, non-partisan research institution dedicated to providing timely information concerning critical political and strategic developments in China,…

More Info

Premium Content

Tensions Grow In The Southern Gas Corridor

Southern Gas Corridor

Europe’s longest running conflict was reactivated in Karabakh on February 25, with cease-fire violations along the line of contact. The skirmishes lasted a few days and left several soldiers dead without yielding any other result. Azerbaijan’s Ministry of Defense stated its forces had “suffered losses” while repelling the large-scale Armenian assault (Report.az, February 25). By a suspicious coincidence, the fighting erupted on the eve of the 25th anniversary of the tragic and deadly events in Khojaly (considered a “genocide” by Azerbaijan), which was being commemorated in Baku with a 40,000-person march (APA, February 26).

Azerbaijani diplomats believe the recent Armenian provocation was aimed at disrupting the negotiation process over the conflict’s peaceful settlement (Azernews, February 26). However, such an interpretation may fail to acknowledge the echoes of a deeper geopolitical struggle in the region and beyond.

In recent years, Baku has perceived what appears to be Armenian preparations for a new assault. Thus, of particular note, was news of the supply of MiG-29 fighters and other sophisticated aircrafts from Russia to Armenia in February 2016. The Kremlin also extended to the Armenian authorities a $200 million loan for arms purchases (RIA Novosti, June 29, 2016). And in the autumn of last year, media reported the transfer of Iskander ballistic missiles to Armenia, as well (Vedomosti, September 19, 2016). Bilateral military cooperation was further deepened when, in October 2016, Russian President Vladimir Putin submitted a project to create the Russian-Armenian Unified Caucasus Air Defense System; and in November, he approved the formation of a joint Russian-Armenian military unit (Russia-Briefing, November 16, 2016). Related: Are Gulf Oil Producers Falling Into The ‘Venezuela Trap’?

A few days prior to the February violence around Karabakh, Baku hosted the Third Ministerial Meeting of the Southern Gas Corridor (SGC) Advisory Council. The Azerbaijani authorities attached great importance to the event; President Ilham Aliyev himself delivered an address to the meeting (Azertag, February 23). It was attended by not only high-ranking officials of the countries involved in the SGC, but also senior representatives from the European Union and United Kingdom.

The Southern Gas Corridor project encroaches on Russian interests as a near-monopoly supplier to Southeastern Europe. Thus, Moscow has and will continue to try to prevent the completion of the SGC using both “carrots” (proposing allegedly more efficient alternative projects, such as “South Stream” and later “Turkish Stream”) and “sticks” (efforts to sabotage projects viewed in Moscow as hostile). The Trans-Adriatic Pipeline (TAP) project—the SGC’s final link—has been under constant threat from environmentalist groups in Italy, a country where Russian interests are well represented (Natural Gas World, September 10, 2014).

It is worth mentioning that even in the 1990s, the Kremlin tried hard to prevent the conclusion of the 1994 oil contract and later initiatives that directed major energy flows from Azerbaijan toward the West. The occupation of Karabakh and surrounding Azerbaijani regions by Armenia, several coup attempts in Baku—one of them occurring just two weeks after the Baku–Tbilisi–Ceyhan (BTC) oil pipeline “Contract of the Century” was signed (Khazar, 2008)—and terrorist attacks in Azerbaijan in the early and mid-1990s coincided with the period when Azerbaijani officials and foreign companies were actively negotiating oil agreements. Russia’s ambassador to Azerbaijan at the time, Valter Shonia, could not have been more frank when he was quoted as saying, “Any politician denying the reality of Russian power is not going to remain long in office. Russia is interested in cooperation with the West over Azerbaijan, but if there is some attempt to unseat Russia, there will be unpleasant consequences” (Azerbaijan International, Winter 1994). In the end, Russian businesses secured a considerable share of the contracts (Visions, September–October 2010). Moreover, Azerbaijan agreed to continue selling oil via the outdated and lengthy Baku–Novorossiysk pipeline. Since then, Moscow has not shown any more substantial tolerance for independent regional energy projects. On the contrary, the Ukrainian conflict and the occupation of Crimea demonstrate that Moscow has become more aggressive toward any attempts to diminish the influence of Russia in the post-Soviet space.

Related: Mysterious Outage In Libya Could Drive Oil Prices Higher

Oil production in Azerbaijan is already gradually declining, and daily volumes aren’t likely to breach the 1 million bpd threshold in the foreseeable future. Thus, if Baku wishes to make the most of its limited oil wealth, it has to commit to a wider engagement in Westward transportation networks, of which the SGC is a key part. At the same time, the European Union’s interest in diversifying its energy sources means that Europe has a real stake in the latest energy contest for Caspian energy resources (Europa.eu, September 19, 2016; Eurasia Daily, November 16, 2016). Thus, the Kremlin’s attempts to undermine the feasibility of the SGC project is a strategic policy, since a weak Europe is key to Russia’s “divide-and-rule” strategy in Eurasia. Moreover, Moscow’s support for separatist movements across post-Soviet countries is well known. Indeed, it has been actively using this weapon in its standoff with the West, as in the 2008 war with Georgia, when Russia ultimately recognized the “independence” of Abkhazia and South Ossetia, and during the conflict in Ukraine, which started in 2014. In fact, Moscow has recently resorted to supporting separatist movements in Western countries, as well (Imrussia.org, November 12, 2015).

All that said, the Kremlin has some reason to worry that the negative status-quo it helped to build up in the region might be undermined in favor of a more cooperative approach. Such strategic initiatives as the SGC, as well as the Baku-Tbilisi-Kars railway, have the potential to deepen the participation of the South Caucasus countries in global supply chains. In Armenia, there is a growing realization that the protracted conflict with Azerbaijan and its quasi-colonial dependence on the “Russian bear” are the only factors keeping the country from seizing these opportunities. A significant development in recent months has been the formation of the “Armenia-Azerbaijan Peace Platform,” the first-ever attempt at independent people’s diplomacy, whereby a number of Armenian public figures openly voiced their support for a peaceful resolution of the conflict and a normalization process (Arm-azpeace.com, March 10). Some of them even visited Baku while intergovernmental contacts were at perhaps a historic low (Azvision, December 31, 2016). The discourse coming from the Platform emphasized the benefits “third forces” (usually a euphemism for Moscow) have gained from the unrelenting conflict and alienation between the two neighboring nations. The latest escalation, therefore, might have been specifically designed to maintain the confrontational mood, and thus again raise concerns among foreign investors about the regional security situation.

By Jamestown.org

ADVERTISEMENT

More Top Reads From Oilprice.com:


Download The Free Oilprice App Today

Back to homepage





Leave a comment
  • merie on April 01 2017 said:
    Please check your facts before publishing articles. Azerbaijan still remains one of the most corrupted countries in the world (fact check about their President Aliev), they've been provoking Armenia on several instances. They are Turkey's moppet....

Leave a comment




EXXON Mobil -0.35
Open57.81 Trading Vol.6.96M Previous Vol.241.7B
BUY 57.15
Sell 57.00
Oilprice - The No. 1 Source for Oil & Energy News