Georgia - Oil & Gas Politics Development of Caspian oil and gas
resources and export routes has been slowed by regional
conflict, political instability, and lack of regional
cooperation. Many of the proposed export routes pass through
areas where conflicts remain unresolved. Most of these are in
the Transcaucasus part of the Caspian region, where conflicts in
Georgia, the Chechnya portion of Russia, and between Armenia and
Azerbaijan, hinder the development of export routes westward
from the Caspian. The future of the Caucasus region could be
determined by the pipelines running through it. Each country in
the region and several outside it have their own views on how
oil and gas should reach the rest of the world. The western
route for early oil from Azerbaijan goes from Baku to the
Georgian port of Supsa on the Black Sea, and several other
proposed pipeline routes also pass through Georgia. Pipeline
construction on the western route was suspended briefly in
October 1998 because of the fighting between governm