Such shifts in net demand for Gulf petroleum can act as a catalyst to encourage the Saudis to adopt a lower price strategy. Thus, since the early 1990s the United States has attempted to diversify energy sources through petroleum development among the successor states of the Soviet Union. Among other foreign policy objectives in the region, the U.S. has focused on oil production and transport because of its potential to make an important contribution to U.S. energy security. Of particular interest to U.S. policy makers are the oil and gas producing countries of Azerbaijan, Kazakhstan, and Turkmenistan. In addition, Georgia and Turkey have important roles as transit points for moving oil to western markets.
Turkey is also a principle consumer of oil and gas from the region.
U.S. policy initiatives to encourage new production have not been limited to Central Asia and the South Caucasus. The U.S. has invested considerable effort in encouraging institution building and investment-friendly legislation in Russia to promote petroleum development there as well as a host of similarly modest efforts in Latin America and Africa. From the perspective of the major oil importing countries, such a large concentration of low cost reserves presents two kinds of vulnerabilities or risks. The first vulnerability stems from the possibility that a relatively small number of producers could restrict output to the world market, and as a result, charge prices over the long term that are substantially higher than those which would prevail in more competitive markets. One could argue that restricting output and achieving higher prices is in fact the very purpose of OPEC, although, until the 1999 price recovery, the organization had not been very effective at achieving this since the late 1970's.