You don't get it. Putin destroyed the World Trade Center. He did this because he knew it would empower Bush's democracy building tendencies, which would cause him to back Saakashvilli's ascension to power in Georgia and arm him. This increased Saak's sense of self-confidence, causing him to engage in a fool-hardy attack on South Ossetia and give Putin the pretext to invade, thus causing BP to temporarily shut down its pipeline. Unfortunately, it will probably only be for a couple of weeks, so now he has to do it all over again. Bummer.
--- On Tue, 8/12/08, Marvin Gandall <marvgandall at videotron.ca> wrote:
> >
> > Except the BTC is shut dowm, after being bombed two
> weeks before the
> > invasion and - as I'm sure you know - BP have shut
> down the Supsa
> > pipeline.
> >
> > So, I think Mr. Putin's petro-objectives in this
> war have been met.
> =====================================
> The BTC wasn't "bombed", nor were the other
> two pipelines "despite claims
> from some officials there that Russian forces had attacked
> the lines." If
> Saakashvili hadn't embarked on his disasterous
> adventure, BP would not now
> be closing the lines as a "precaution". Place the
> responsibility where it
> lies, please.
>
> * * *
>
> BP shuts down Georgian pipeline as precaution
> The Associated Press
> Tuesday, August 12, 2008
> LONDON: BP PLC said it shut down an oil pipeline that runs
> through Georgia
> on Tuesday as a precautionary measure, but added that it is
> unaware of any
> Russian bombings on pipelines in the region.
>
> BP said the 90,000-barrel-a-day pipeline to Supsa on
> Georgia's Black Sea
> coast from Baku in Azerbaijan will remain closed
> indefinitely.
>
> Another pipeline operated by the London-based oil company
> in the former
> Soviet Republic, the larger Baku-Tbilisi-Ceyhan pipeline,
> is already out of
> action after a fire last week on its Turkish stretch. The
> BTC pipeline
> usually provides around 1 million barrels of Caspian crude
> to international
> markets.
>
> BP spokesman Robert Wine said that the Baku-Supsa line was
> closed because it
> runs through the center of Georgia, where there was greater
> risk of
> conflict.
>
> However, he added that BP had no reports of damage to
> pipelines in Georgia,
> despite claims from some officials there that Russian
> forces had attacked
> the lines.
>
> "I think those reports out there are inaccurate,"
> he said.
>
> Turkish President Abdullah Gul also said Tuesday that
> fighting in Georgia
> had not damaged the Baku-Tbilisi-Ceyhan pipeline.
>
> Wine later said that BP also had stopped pumping gas into
> the South Caucasus
> pipeline, which runs from the Caspian Sea through Georgia
> into Turkey.
> However, gas will continue to run though that line for
> another seven days.
>
> BP would continue to assess the security situation in
> Georgia over the next
> few days to consider when to reopen the pipelines, Wine
> said.
>
> Georgian ports on the Black Sea are a main shipping point
> of Caspian Sea
> crude from Azerbaijan, Turkmenistan and Kazakhstan. More
> than 500,000
> barrels leave these ports daily, and plans are afoot to
> expand capacity by
> an additional 200,000 barrels a day.
>
> The Baku-Supsa pipeline was only reopened a few weeks ago
> after 18 months of
> inaction. It has the capacity to pump up to 150,000 barrels
> a day, but has
> recently been pumping around 90,000 barrels a day.
>
> BP said it still has no time frame on the potential
> reopening of the
> Baku-Tbilisi-Ceyhan pipeline after it was damaged by a fire
> late last
> Tuesday. Kurdish rebels took responsibility for sabotaging
> the pipeline.
>
> Workers for Botas International Ltd, which operates the BTC
> line, put out
> the fire on Monday and are expected to carry out a closer
> inspection of the
> damage over the coming days.
>
> A third pipeline that runs to the Russian Black Sea port of
> Novorossiysk
> which BP uses to export oil, but does not operate, remains
> open.
>
> Wine said that there was still some production in oil
> fields in the Caspian
> Sea, but it had been reduced because of the pipeline
> closures.
>
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