CASPIAN ENERGY: WASHINGTON TRYING NEW TACK ON NABUCCO PROJECT

* username: rupertbu

The United States wants to "depoliticize" the proposed Nabucco pipeline project, and might welcome Russia’s participation in the pipeline, Washington’s Eurasian energy envoy, Richard Morningstar, recently announced. The Kremlin, however, is likely to interpret this outwardly magnanimous gesture as a sign of Nabucco’s weakness, some experts say.

Speaking at a late January forum sponsored by the Washington, DC,-based Center for American Progress, Morningstar indicated that the United States would not necessarily object if Europeans ultimately chose to build the Russian-backed Nord Stream or South Stream pipelines. Morningstar’s appearance at the forum was billed as the first comprehensive exposition of the Obama administration’s Caspian energy strategy. While continuing to back the same basic principles as the Bush and Clinton administrations, it was clear from the talk that the Obama administration has much more modest goals regarding Caspian energy than its predecessors.

Morningstar said Washington had three primary energy objectives in the region: to help to develop new oil and natural gas deposits; to support European energy security by making sure EU states have access to energy from a variety of sources; and to promote the economic development of the countries of the Caucasus and Central Asia by developing as many markets as possible for their hydrocarbon resources. "All we want to see is that the countries of the Caucasus and Central Asia be able to make their own decisions, as they see their own interests, with respect to the production and export of their resources," he said.