Energies are of the most critical resources useful for the production of goods as well as for the providing of services. Energies can be natural, like the solar, or be the result of chemical manipulation, like the nuclear. Energies have different scales of accessibility, depending on the location where we would like to access it, the level and price of technology available to produce or capture it, or the marginal cost of investment to be reached, in order to keep a profitability of the human and financial efforts made to get it.

 

Some forms of energies, such as oil, can have a particular importance in the well functioning of dozens of basic activities, like the most common: transportation. The ease of accessibility to oil reserves has historically been since WWII a major goal for great powers. Indeed, in 1942, Hitler’s over-powerful Whermacht’s energetic needs led Nazi Germany to run the war to the Caucasus mountain range and almost to the Caspian Sea (Stalingrad). There, it was already partly proven that the soil was occupied by much of the required energy, essential for the upkeep of 3^rd Reich’s military forces. Then, at the era of globalization of World’s businesses, and facing the paradox of permanent research for energetic safety and potential independence of countries from others, there tends to run a global competition for control, possession and easy access to World’s oil reserves. Furthermore, the sustainability of a war time status quo since 1941, during WWII, then during the Cold War, and now since the establishment of a new World order, where the Unites States of America is logically trying to keep and improve its leadership among the members of the international community, keep the oil issue at a high level of interest.

Oil has been, for the past 50 years, a major source of energy that all powerful countries have been trying to own, to control, or at least to access easily. Indeed, oil is not only critical for transportation, a fundamental activity for the development of business networks, for international trade, for travels, but also for the needs of modern armies. Oil proved to be a source of crisis between different states. The lack of oil proved it can quickly paralyze the western economies during a long period of time (e.g. in 1973 because of Yom Kippur War). This explains the strategic importance of political and economic stability of regions that produce the largest part of the World production.

 

The Cold War has been freezing the World under 2 major spheres of influence: the Western zone led by the U.S., and the Eastern zone led by the U.S.S.R. Their powers, more or less equivalent, made difficult for both of them to improve their own reserves and production of energy by another way than the research of new oil pools in countries located inside their own sphere. The “freeze” gradually collapsed as the Soviet Union collapsed. The campaign for promotion of free enterprise and globalization of economies then started to open the world oil reserves to those who could be able to exploit them.

 

The recent researches tended to prove that the accessible regions (for nobody else but the Soviets during half of the 20th century) regions of the Caspian Sea and of the Central Asian former U.S.S.R. (Kazakhstan mostly, Uzbekistan, Turkmenistan, Azerbaijan, and the autonomous provinces of the Russian Federation in Caucasus) seem to hide huge oil pools. These, considered almost untouched, make the OPEC forecast the crude oil production of Kazakhstan to reach the level of Saudi Arabia (from far the first oil producer in the World) by 2015.

 

It is considering that a relative political stability has been reached and maintained since 1991 at least in the eastern regions of the Caspian Sea. But global relations between the Western and the Islamic worlds have been unfortunately officially keyed up since the tragedy of September 11th and its aftermath, an American policy of retaliation, targeting rebel states potentially supporting terrorism. It becomes important to see the long-term impact on World’s oil business and on Central Asian and world’s economies of the potential future development of production and exportation of Central Asian oil.

 

Among central Asian states, Kazakhstan is the one where the major focus seems to be made. Why? Are its oil pools so colossal that they can represent an energetic “Eldorado” of the 21^st century for the powerful countries? How big are they really? And what can be the influence and the impact of any billions of Kazakh barrels of oil launched on the ruled international market and price of oil? What can be the elements endangering the development of the huge Kazakh oil industries and exportations? Finally, what would be the gain for Kazakhstan to play the game, and take benefits of its national black gold?

All these questions have been discusses and answered in this thesis.