In a previous post, I noted the importance of the BTC pipeline to the US's plan to turn Georgia into a key energy corridor that bypasses Russian control, and highlighted this as a reason for the US pushing for Georgian accession into NATO. In this post, I wanted to refer you to a post by Jeff Kouba at Peace Like a River, which focuses on this very subject.

In his post, discussing the energy corridor, Jeff has two graphics, which I am including below, that will give you a better picture of why Georgia is so important to the US, and the European Union.

[Pictures of existing and proposed oil pipelines in Russia and Georgia to Europe in original post]

Here are a few excerpts from Jeff's post:

Georgia has been involved in a few attempts to circumvent Russia’s dominance of gas routes, and one of those is the proposed White Stream pipeline. This pipe would take Caspian gas to Europe without passing through Russia.

This would branch off the South Caucasus pipeline, which runs near the BTC pipeline. If Russia were to take control of the BTC pipeline, it would also control the South Caucasus pipeline, and hence could dictate the success or failure of the White Stream pipeline.

The Nabucco Pipeline is another proposal for bringing gas to Europe, without having it pass through Russian control. It would connect “the Caspian region, Middle East and Egypt via Turkey, Bulgaria, Romania, Hungary with Austria and further on with the Central and Western European gas markets.”

In cooperation with Italy, Russia has countered with its own proposal, the South Stream Project. This project would augment the Blue Stream pipeline, and would take gas from Turkey through Bulgaria and Serbia to Hungary and Austria. Note that Ukraine is avoided.

Russia has been putting pressure on European nations to join its project, and not Nabucco. And, with success. Serbia, Hungary, Greece and Bulgaria have signed on.

It may not be a direct cause and effect, but at the very least it’s an interesting metaphor to look at the responses of these nations to Russia’s action in Georgia.

As I highlighted in another post, this is also why Steve LeVine at Oil and Glory argued that the big winner in all of this could be China, who is also building pipelines from Central Asia which would allow that region to reduce its reliance on Russia.

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