Bill Sykes' Newsletter from America.
(Summer 2002)
An ex-Brit gives his views-(without fear
or favor)---of the American Scene
A new source of liquid gold.
 Recently,
leaders of Russia, Iran, Azerbaijan and Kazakhstan met with
"President for life", Saparmurat Niyazov of Turkmenistan
to discuss ways and means of dividing one of the worlds
richest oil and gas regions, located in the area of the
Caspian Sea.
Estimates for the quantity of oil reserves in the region,
range from 35 billion barrels to as much as 300 billion
barrels, which is approximately half the size of the Saudi
Arabian reserves, and by the year 2020 the area could be
pumping 6 million barrels of oil a day.
Unlocking the Caspian Sea energy will of course be exceedingly
difficult due to the fact that before the oil starts to
flow to Western markets, producers, consumers and oil companies
must come to terms with major issues such as boundaries,
pipelines, difficulty of access, and degree of investment.
It has been reported that Western oil companies have already
invested as much as $8 billion in exploration and development
in the area, but to reach a potential 6 billion barrels
of oil a day by 2020 will require anywhere between $30 billion
to $60 billion further foreign investment.
So as usual, "All that glitters is not gold"
until you have set up exploration, drilling, and distribution
of the commodity.
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