The Great Energy Game

As demand soars, central Asia’s oil and gas reserves are a magnet pulling in the world’s powers

In the 19th century, Russian and British diplomats, officers, and spies sketched maps of central Asia, carving political boundaries into the steppes and mountains as they played “The Great Game” to win control of the region. Today, there is a new map of central Asia, pored over by governments and oil company executives. It is known as “hub and spoke.” The hub is the Caspian Sea, and the spokes are the multiple pipe-lines emanating from it, representing potential export routes for the vast oil and gas resources that lie beneath.
Kazakhstan, the largest country in central Asia, has three of the world’s richest hydrocarbon fields. One of them, Kashagan, was discovered in the Caspian five years ago. It is believed to rank among the five largest fields on Earth and is expected to start producing in the next few years. Kazakhstan produced 1.2 million barrels a day last year, but it is expected to pump 3 million barrels a day by 2015-almost as much as Iran. Chevron is spending over $5 billion to expand production there, its largest project anywhere. “There are very few places in the world that have still untapped reserves and the openness in the business environment,” says Roman Vassilenko, a Kazakh government spokesman. He says 70 percent of Kazakh oil production is owned by foreign companies.

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