Kazakhstan: Kashagan Oil Soon to Flow | EurasiaNet.org
►http://www.eurasianet.org/node/66055
October 16, 2012
In the Caspian Sea’s choppy waters off western Kazakhstan’s coast, D-Day is approaching on a man-made mound called D Island. It is the nerve center of the Kashagan field, the world’s biggest oil discovery in decades.
D Island — a futuristic splash of fluorescent orange and gleaming silver set against the Caspian’s blue-gray waters — is now gearing up for the historic day when it will start pumping oil. For energy conglomerates wishing to cash in on their investments, and for President Nursultan Nazarbayev’s administration, waiting eagerly — and not always patiently — to reap the benefits of the oil bonanza 70 kilometers off Kazakhstan’s coast, the oil cannot start flowing a moment too soon.