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By controlling pipelines from oil-rich neighbors such as Kazakhstan and Azerbaijan, Moscow could cash in on the energy wealth of its former empire. While Russia has the largest oil and gas reserves in what had been the Soviet Union, political and economic instability has kept Moscow from developing them in recent years. Russian oil production fell from more than 11 million bbl. a day in 1988 to fewer than 7 million bbl. last year, as domestic demand slackened and outmoded equipment was not replaced. At the same time, Moscow's uncertain tax and legal climate has discouraged foreign investors.
Even so, Amoco and Shell are developing sites in the Khanty-Mansiisk region of western Siberia, the source of most of Russia's current production. And in April a consortium of Western firms led by Texaco, Exxon and Amoco signed an agreement with Moscow to invest $100 million in drilling in the Pechora Sea.
Sites in the Caspian Sea have attracted investors to Azerbaijan, which remains locked in a conflict with neighboring Armenia over Nagorno-Karabakh, the ethnic Armenian enclave on Azeri soil. Despite the violence, a group of companies that includes Amoco, British Petroleum, Pennzoil and Unocal has been negotiating for more than a year to develop the Chirag field, which contains an estimated 1.5 billion bbl. of oil.
CHINA. The locals call the Tarim Basin, in the northwestern corner of the country, "the Sea of Death." On either side of the ribbon of asphalt that runs through the desert for more than 120 miles, there are few signs of life. Sand dunes tower as high as 150 ft. and are held in place by reeds woven into grids to keep the sand from covering the road. The vast hinterland, an area slightly larger than France, where temperatures range from subzero to 120F, may contain more than 70 billion bbl. of crude -- equal to nearly one-third of Saudi Arabia's proven reserves.
Beijing says more than 60 companies from 17 countries have expressed interest in the Tarim Basin. Last December Exxon and Japan-Indonesia Petroleum won the right to explore the first major block; a group of five firms including Texaco, Japan Petroleum and France's Elf Aquitaine submitted the winning bid for a second block in February.
China has thrown the Tarim open to foreign investment in a frantic effort to obtain the oil it needs to fuel its economic boom. The basin has yielded more than 15 million bbl. to domestic drilling since 1989, making it the country's sixth largest oil field. That is not enough to slake a thirst that will turn China into a net importer of crude this year for the first time since 1965.
VIETNAM. In late 1974 Mobil explored the Blue Dragon field in the South China Sea, 200 miles off the South Vietnamese coast. North Vietnam's victory in 1975 denied Mobil the chance to exploit finds in the region, but now Hanoi wants the company to return. A Mobil-led consortium is happy to oblige: it believes that Blue Dragon could hold up to 500 million bbl. of oil.