Albanian Oil and Gas Discovery Underscores Kosovo's Importance (2 Viewers)

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Large Potential Albanian Oil & Gas Discovery Underscores Kosovo’s Importance


February 19, 2008

On January 10, Swiss-based Manas Petroleum Corporation broke the news. Gustavson Associates LLC's Resource Evaluation identified large prospects of oil and gas reserves in Albania, close to Kosovo. They're in areas called blocks A, B, C, D and E, encompassing about 780,000 acres along the northwest to southeast "trending (geological) fold belt of northwestern Albania."

Assigned estimates of the find (so far unproved) are up to 2.987 billion barrels of oil and 3.014 trillion cubic feet of natural gas. However, because of their depth, oil deposits may be capped with a layer of gas. If so, Gustavson calculates the potential to be 1.4 billion barrels of light oil and up to 15 trillion cubic feet of natural gas. Further, if only gas is present, the discovery may be as much as 28 trillion cubic feet. In any case, if estimates prove out, it's a sizable find.
BaltimoreChronicle


I guess everything is geopolitical these days or maybe it always was that way. Serbia could really lose out on some natural resources with Kosovo's independence. I wonder how the U.S. will play into this.<O:p</O:p
 
Large Potential Albanian Oil & Gas Discovery Underscores Kosovo’s Importance


February 19, 2008

On January 10, Swiss-based Manas Petroleum Corporation broke the news. Gustavson Associates LLC's Resource Evaluation identified large prospects of oil and gas reserves in Albania, close to Kosovo. They're in areas called blocks A, B, C, D and E, encompassing about 780,000 acres along the northwest to southeast "trending (geological) fold belt of northwestern Albania."

Assigned estimates of the find (so far unproved) are up to 2.987 billion barrels of oil and 3.014 trillion cubic feet of natural gas. However, because of their depth, oil deposits may be capped with a layer of gas. If so, Gustavson calculates the potential to be 1.4 billion barrels of light oil and up to 15 trillion cubic feet of natural gas. Further, if only gas is present, the discovery may be as much as 28 trillion cubic feet. In any case, if estimates prove out, it's a sizable find.
BaltimoreChronicle


I guess everything is geopolitical these days or maybe it always was that way. Serbia could really lose out on some natural resources with Kosovo's independence. I wonder how the U.S. will play into this.<o>:p</o>:p

Take a taste of the action...

Good to see that our Federal government is now backing the right to secession from a federalized polity despite that War Between the States Thing that happened here.

Remember this precedent.
 
Looking more into this it seems American support of Kosovo independence could result in some pretty bad blowback. Russia really has a distasteful attitude about the situation, and if you remember this is the region that started the World Wars with Russia coming to the aid of the Serbs. I'm not saying this could start another World War, but this could be a serious hit to Russia and I don't know what the consequences will be.

Kosovo's sovereignity and its association with jihadism is another issue. Why would the U.S. gov support a new sovereign potentially Islamic Fundamentalist state? There are guys within the leadership that have ties to Al Quaeda and have supposedly consulted with Bin Laden personally.

This could lead to Russia encouraging separatists groups in areas of interest for Russia that could hurt the U.S. I wonder how crucial of a hit geopolitically was Kosovo's independence to Russia especially considering the newly found resources there. When Brzezinski termed it 'The Grand Chessboard' he could not have thought of a better use of words.
 
Looking more into this it seems American support of Kosovo independence could result in some pretty bad blowback. Russia really has a distasteful attitude about the situation, and if you remember this is the region that started the World Wars with Russia coming to the aid of the Serbs. I'm not saying this could start another World War, but this could be a serious hit to Russia and I don't know what the consequences will be.

Kosovo's sovereignity and its association with jihadism is another issue. Why would the U.S. gov support a new sovereign potentially Islamic Fundamentalist state? There are guys within the leadership that have ties to Al Quaeda and have supposedly consulted with Bin Laden personally.

This could lead to Russia encouraging separatists groups in areas of interest for Russia that could hurt the U.S. I wonder how crucial of a hit geopolitically was Kosovo's independence to Russia especially considering the newly found resources there. When Brzezinski termed it 'The Grand Chessboard' he could not have thought of a better use of words.

Well, if they are playing a game here, it could be aimed at causing trouble for Russia, which has plenty of restive minorities who might want to to follow the Kosovar example and break away...
 
This precedent, and our hypocrisy concerning it, has existed in our foreign policy since, well, 1861. This is not new, novel, or even that interesting.

Since on average we have such a long memory and firm grasp of history in this country, perhaps you are right....
 
Since on average we have such a long memory and firm grasp of history in this country, perhaps you are right....

Not even that long ago. We supported the splitting of East Timor from Indonesia, Eriteria from Ethopia, already Montenegro from Serbia in 2006, Namibia from South Africa, etc. Those are just off the top of my head from the past decade or so. Plus there are independence movements we're currently supporting (like the Western Sahara) and "autonomy" we support (Tawain), not to mention our strong history in forcibly partitioning or attempting to partition countries (Korea, Vietnam, etc)

etc, etc, etc
 
The peace accords Clinton had everyone sign up to in '98 or 99 virtually made Kosovo's independence inevitable. I think Russia and the serbs were the only ones to not sign on.
 
black, I think in retrospect secession is a naive and foolish ideal. If you had argued this 150 years ago, you may gotten an audience, but now its discredited becuase of the South's support of slavery and later states rights arguments on segregation. to me secession is more based on setting an agenda that is single minded and avoids any complicated arguments. You can argue secession till you grow a long beard, but people will always see it as a descrited ideal becuase it was done for selfish and unethical reasons. It is based on situational ethics and has a slippery slope logic to it.

the secession idea is over, black. the South tried it and lost 150 years ago, their successors in the Segregated south did a mini version of it for 100 years and in the process made Black Americans second class citizens and eventually they were beaten back.

Does not matter if you think its a liberal or right or wrong, history usually shows people saying secession are doing it becuase of other agendas that are dubious and unethical.

That history shows black is not a lie either
 
Hmmm...maybe I'll end up visiting Kosovo before I make it to Afghanistan.

I hear the food is better there.
 
This precedent, and our hypocrisy concerning it, has existed in our foreign policy since, well, 1861. This is not new, novel, or even that interesting.

Yes but an evil Neo-Con, CFR member, son of a skull and crossbones member (Plus son of the guy who said 'New World Order" a lot), globalist war for oil, worst president evar did it so the long history of reluctantly recognizing new countries doesn't count.

I should find a shortwave set somewhere and tune in Alex Jones for his take on this since it jibes with blackadder, Rebsaint, bclemms etc etc nicely.

( I only listen to AJ when I'm flying for 3 reasons 1. We have a High Frequency radio capable of tuning 9.985 2. I get bored. 3. Its darn funny unless you believe what he is saying. Then I imagine it is quite depressing.)

I should buy a shortwave set for home but I'm afraid if I listened daily my resolve could weaken and my intelligence could be washed away in a wave of paranoid delusion. I might start thinking Ron Paul was an honest, open minded, rational man.
 
>>Hmmm...maybe I'll end up visiting Kosovo before I make it to Afghanistan.

The muslims are a little more attractive over there. :shrug: Croatia Uber Alles.
istockphoto_1822850_croatia_flag_with_clipping_path.jpg
 
black, I think in retrospect secession is a naive and foolish ideal. If you had argued this 150 years ago, you may gotten an audience, but now its discredited becuase of the South's support of slavery and later states rights arguments on segregation. to me secession is more based on setting an agenda that is single minded and avoids any complicated arguments. You can argue secession till you grow a long beard, but people will always see it as a descrited ideal becuase it was done for selfish and unethical reasons. It is based on situational ethics and has a slippery slope logic to it.

the secession idea is over, black. the South tried it and lost 150 years ago, their successors in the Segregated south did a mini version of it for 100 years and in the process made Black Americans second class citizens and eventually they were beaten back.

Does not matter if you think its a liberal or right or wrong, history usually shows people saying secession are doing it becuase of other agendas that are dubious and unethical.

That history shows black is not a lie either

You are conflating two distinct issues, which is what the North successfully did 150 years ago. The morality of slavery is separate from the democratic right of self-determination, particularly for a group of states that voluntarily entered a Union. If they entered voluntarily, they should be able to exit voluntarily if it reflects the popular will (and it did).

Slavery would have been a burden that would have weakened and debilitated the Southern states anyway. There would have been violence and strife but in the end the slavery system would have broken down in the South with or without the civil war, just as aparthied broke down in South Africa.

But on principle, I see nothing that should prevent secession so long as you can work out the settlement of accounts on Federal vs. State properties.

Apart from slavery there were a large number of divergent economic interests between the South and the North that were threatening to paralyze the political life of the nation. The people of the South believed membership in the Union had become a burden that was draining more opportunity from them than it was creating and they voted accordingly.

Remember, if the South would have toed the line politically and accepted the dominance of Northern industry in Washington, Mr Lincoln was quite prepared to let slavery continue unmolested. So, please don't tell me it was about the principle or morality of slavery.

The "morality and principle" rhetoric is alwas used as the cloak for hard headed mercenary calculations, just as "spreading democracy" has been the cloak for our 20th century foreign policy.
 
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I should find a shortwave set somewhere and tune in Alex Jones for his take on this since it jibes with blackadder, Rebsaint, bclemms etc etc nicely.


And David Duke is a member of the Republican party...
 

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