ALMATY, Kazakhstan — The lure of oil--as much as $4 trillion worth--is drawing the United States deep into distant and dangerous lands around the Caspian Sea.
Although few Americans know the region, the prospect of enormous energy deposits is likely to make the Caspian as familiar a part of the world for the next generation of Americans as the Persian Gulf is for today's. It has already pulled in a who's who of oil industry giants and let loose a multibillion-dollar wave of international investment.
For the Record
Los Angeles Times Sunday March 8, 1998 Home Edition Part A Page 3 Metro Desk 2 inches; 49 words Type of Material: Correction
Promoting democracy--In a Feb. 23 report about U.S. interests in the Caspian Sea region, The Times incorrectly characterized a U.S. law restricting aid to Azerbaijan. Section 907 of the 1992 Freedom Support Act was amended late last year and now does permit U.S. government assistance for projects in that country, including democracy-building.
And in a development laden with long-term significance, it has even spawned a nascent American military link to the region spanning southern nations of the old Soviet Union and Iran.
But as the United States moves to the forefront of the century's last great oil rush, two simple truths stand out about this former imperial outpost, which has churned with political discontent in the six years since the collapse of the Soviet Union:
* Rarely has the possibility of new, world-class oil strikes seemed greater.
"The Caspian Sea is the greatest unexplored and undeveloped oil province in the world," summed up British Petroleum's chief executive, John Browne. "We're just at the beginning of something there."
* And rarely has the potential for political headaches seemed stronger.
Since the collapse of Soviet rule, the Caspian Sea basin has experienced four wars, two attempted presidential assassinations, a coup and countless attempted coups.
"The Caspian is not an economic problem or a geological or an engineering problem," commented former Secretary of State James A. Baker III, who helped forge Washington's initial diplomatic relations with countries of the region during his tenure in office and whose Houston law firm is an active player in the Caspian oil rush. "It is a geopolitical problem of the first magnitude."
Added Sen. Sam Brownback (R-Kan.), a respected congressional voice on the region's fledgling oil states, "They're caught in a tough neighborhood."
Suddenly, so is the United States.
Last summer, 500 U.S. airborne troops led by a Marine general parachuted into central Kazakhstan as part of multinational military exercises that underscored heightened American interest in the region's stability. It is an interest that is welcomed by the Caspian nations.
A Delicate Political Balancing Act
In Azerbaijan, senior officials like to cast their country as the Caspian's version of small, oil-rich Kuwait in the Persian Gulf.
