01.00.00

Vision sea dotted with oil rigs and buildings

00.12

As you fly over the Caspian Sea, you can almost smell the oil. Every few hundred metres, another giant rig juts out of the water.

00.24

Whole communities of oil workers and their families live at sea.

00.33

For oil men, like Bill Messerall, this is the new Persian Gulf.

00.38

Int: Bill Messerall

There's a lot of it. I mean by all accounts we're talking one hundred to two hundred billion barrels recoverable oil. That's a lot. And this is a mega - it's a mega area. I mean it's huge.

01.00

Helicopter pilot/ oil rigs dotting sea/ Bill Messerall.

For the past four and a half years, Bill Messerall has divided his time between Texas and Azerbaijan, the former Soviet republic that straddles the Caspian Sea.

01.12

A few years earlier it would been unthinkable for him to come here.

Helicopter landing/Messerall on oil rig/ crew working on rig

01.23

Soviet pride and paranoia closed the oilfields to western technology and expertise. Instead they stumbled on with Soviet inefficiency to exploit a fraction of the area's oil.

01.40

Now, Azerbaijan is an independent nation. And the oil fields are open for business. At this rig, Bill Messerall's team is installing a filtration system to stop the pump becoming clogged by sand.  It's standard technology on western rigs. But it's such an advance for here, it's expected to double the rig's output.

When the Caspian Sea's full potential is tapped, it's oil fields are likely to yield more petro-dollars than Kuwait's.

02.12

Int: Bill Messerall on oil rig

This is one of the last great frontiers. We will never be repeating what's going on ever again. I'll never be able to repeat in my career. It won't happen. Or anybody else's. Because this is one of the last true frontiers.

02.29

Vision streets of Baku/ giant buildings

The centre of this frontier is the Azerbaijan capital, Baku. The town hasn't seen this much foreign activity for 80 years.

02.41

Int: Fuad Ahundov, policeman in taxi/streets of Baku/large buildings

The whole building was constructed by the greediest Azeri oil baron. Although he was the stingiest one. He built the biggest number of excellent houses in Baku.

02.53

Fuad Ahundov is a Baku policeman, who makes his best money moonlighting as a tour guide for visiting oil executives. But the boom he's describing began more than a century before he was born. In 1852, Baku became the centre for the world's first industry, making millions for the Nobels, the Rothschilds, and even some fortunate locals.

03.16

Fuad at table/b&w photos of old oil boom

Campbell:  So how rich a town was Baku?

03.18

Int: Fuad Ahundov

It was an immensely rich city, immensely rich city. Because it was the time when an oil gusher - and Baku was famous for marvellous oil fountains - could make an owner of a small piece of land a millionaire overnight. And actually Baku was providing more than half of the world output in oil by 1901.

03.42

climbing apartment stairs and entering apartment/ Asherbekov sisters in apartment

Only a minority became rich from the first boom, and today less than a handful survive.

03.50

Fuad took me to meet Baku's last oil aristocrats.

04.03

Sarah, Marian and Adelia Asherbekov are all approaching their centenaries. But they've retained the manners - indeed the language - of their upper class education.

04.17

Asherbekov sisters sitting at table in apartment

Sarah:  I understand English, but I speak French well.

You speak French?

Sarah: Yes.

How? How did you learn?

Sarah:  I went to a French school in Istanbul.

04.33

Exterior modern apartment block/ exterior / interior gracious mansion

Their home is a crumbling Soviet apartment. But 80 years ago, they lived in Baku's finest mansion.

04.40

Int: Sarah Asherbekov

My father was a big oil baron. He had many wells all over-and several houses. We lived in a luxurious house, you know. And my grandmother was always dressed in gold and pearls.

05.04

B&W picture of man with child/picture of three girls

In 1920, the Bolsheviks shot their father and took everything they'd owned.  They fled to Turkey to live in poverty. A few years later they decided it was safe to return home, but they found the communists would never welcome back the children of an oil baron.

05.22

Int: Sarah Asherbekov

They threw all our things on the street- Sarah:  -they said we didn't own them any more.

05.33

Int: Adelia Asherbekov

All the houses were confiscated. The dachas-the houses of the rich-were taken by the state.

05.44

Int: Sarah Asherbekov

Wait Adela! Be quiet! We used to have ten rooms-and then we had three.

05.53

The communist authorities turned a thriving private oil boom into a Soviet monolith.

06.00

Archive footage of oil workers and Baku oil fields

Music

06.10

Int: Fuad Ahundov

It couldn't be an oil boom in the Soviet days, because we never owned any revenues from oil. The revenues were alienated by the State. We were paid very low, some which sometimes didn't even cover the expenses.

Music

06.25

The oil was crucial to propping up the Soviet Union. But it brought little benefit to Baku's citizens, except perhaps the corrupt officials of the local party machine.

06.44

Vision workers on modern oil rig

But now, there are new oil barons, and new hopes of oil fortunes. So far, five consortiums of foreign oil companies have signed contracts totally $22 billion in direct investment.

06.59

The largest, AIOC, has already paid more than one and a half billion dollars, and the first oil is only just beginning to flow.

07.09

Terry Adams, an Englishman who heads the consortium, is confident the boom could eventually mean better times for all.

07.18

Int: Terry Adams

What we're looking at is, as I said... ...two North Seas, to support a very well educated population. A population equivalent to the size of London. So the opportunity for prosperity is extremely high, as long as political stability comes into the region.

07.38

Vision Baku city/ Presidents' motorcade drives through streets/

The man they're looking to for stability is the President, Hedar Aliyev.

07.44

In true Soviet style, all other traffic has to stop whenever he travels.

08.01

Aliyev exits car and greets people

And no one is more of an old Soviet than Aliyev.

08.06

In the 1980s, he was Azerbaijan's Communist Party boss, a KGB general, and an ultra-conservative Politburo member until he was sacked by Gorbachev. Now he's back in charge as a born again pro-western Azeri nationalist. And a man the oil companies can a do business with.

08.27

Int: Vaza Goulizade, Presidential Spokesperson

I like this photograph best, because he's a very, very open - he's a person with a big sense of humour.

08.36

Vazà Goulizade is his spokesman and foreign policy adviser.

08.40

That's your favourite photo of the president?

08.41

Int: Vaza Goulizade

Yes, it's my favourite photo of the president Aliyev. I think that it is his real nature.

08.47

He assured me that world leaders were just as enamoured with the former communist strongman.

08.53

Int: Vaza Goulizade

President Aliyev is a very progressive person. He has very huge respect. He is in very close touch with all the world, with all politicians of the world. He has huge respect from President Clinton, from President Kohl, from President Chirac. They are working with him, and they are fully convinced that he's a person with a very democratic mentality.

09.17

Vision machinery on oil rig/workers on oil rig/oil fields

Music

09.20

The Caspian Sea's oil reserves may have something to do with that respect. Last century, Russia and Britain fought the so-called Great Game, a mixture of war, diplomacy and subterfuge aimed at controlling Central Asia's trade routes.

09.39

Today, the trade routes for oil are just as tempting and far easier to control. They're simply pipelines.

09.48

The countries they run through could charge huge rents for transit, and if they wanted more, they could simply shut them down.

09.58

PTC Eric Campbell by pipeline

Now the very first oil will be carried out through the old pipeline that runs through Russia. But in the long terms they're going to have to build a huge new pipeline to carry this huge new flood of oil. And deciding which countries that goes through, is the new Great Game. Because controlling that pipeline will be like controlling the Persian Gulf.

10.17

Map of region showing Azerbaijan, Russia, Turkey and Iran

Music

10.19

Russia insists the pipeline should be built alongside the existing route, through Chechnya to the Black Sea.

10.25

Iran wants the oil to flow south through its pipelines to the Persian Gulf.

10.31

The United States wants neither Russia nor Iran to control the oil - it wants a new pipeline built through Turkey to the Mediterranean.

10.39

Azerbaijan wants as many routes as possible.

10.43

Int: Vaza Goulizade

Azerbaijan wants to have control for its own resources, and we don't want to be dependent on any state, on any country. For example, if we'll have many, we'll be able, flexibly, to send it through that route that fits our interests. We'll send it through all routes, but if sometimes we have difficulties we'll use another.

11.11

Vision people celebrating/ people on beach/

Music

11.28

What's not clear is where this big power politics will leave ordinary Azeris.

11.34

From Baku, their horizons are filled with oil rigs.

11.39

After three generations slaving for Moscow, with little reward for themselves, many are anxious to make up for lost time.

11.51

PTC Eric Campbell on beach

The oil boom has given Baku a chance to be great again. But it's also raised expectations of an easy life in the sun as the oil money flows in. It won't be so simple. Most of the big new oil money, like the oil itself, is still a long way away. And it could be years before it trickles down to those who need it most.

12.21

Railway carriages with people walking/washing clothing/ living in carriages

Outside Baku, Azerbaijan is experiencing a social catastrophe. From a population of nine million, close to one million are homeless. They're all victims of a long-running war with neighbouring Armenia over the disputed territory of Nagorno-Karabakh.

12.41

A ceasefire has ended the fighting, but Armenia occupies 20 per cent of Azerbaijan's old Soviet territory. And every one of the refugee's homes.

12.57

Badam and her children

Badam and her family of seven were driving from Nagorno-Karabakh five years ago. The gold in her teeth is all the wealth she could bring with her.

13.05

Int: Badam climbing railway carriage stairs and walk through carriage

Come have a look at how we live, look at our house. We had to come here, leaving everything behind. We put everything in the wagon and it was left in the village. We crossed the Araz River and half of us drowned. The other half crossed the river in the rain and were put up in tents and railway carriages. Many got sick and died. Come and look at how we live.

13.42

The stench and heat in the railway carriage were almost unbearable, but they're lucky to have it as their home.

13.50

Int: Badam in carriage

There are seven of us in the family -myself, my daughter, my son who is wounded in the leg-he is an invalid of war now and he cannot go up and down the stairs.

14.08

interior of carriage

The meagre help they get comes entirely from foreign aid donors. Not a cent of the oil millions paid to Azerbaijan has made its way to the refugees.

14.20

refugees on street

President Aliyev insists they must one day return home, and refuses to build them permanent dwellings.

14.27

But, like the oil barons, Azerbaijan's poor must put their faith in Aliyev.

14.34

Int: Badam

May Allah help Aliyev and us so that he takes back our land and we can go there. We lay all our hopes on Aliyev.

14.47

Asherbekov sisters having tea in apartment

The Asherbekov sisters know they'll never return to their old home, even though it's only a few streets from where they live. And they have no faith in their ex-communist rulers sharing the oil wealth with the people.

14.59

Int: Sarah Asherbekov

Sarah: Hardly.

Why?

Sarah: Because the people who made Baku rich are not here any more. Because the nobility...the rich...have all been killed... shot...They're no longer in Baku.

15.33

Vision people on streets of Baku/Fuad

Yet Baku is showing real signs of change. The advance guard of western oil workers has brought in money, and for some, opportunity.

15.44

Int: Fuad Ahundov

Baku like it is now is not what it used to be half a year ago. And not what it used to be a couple of years ago. The city is changing rapidly. The private property is brining great changes to the image of the streets, to the mode of life, while the main thing to be changed is the mentality of people. And it's the hardest thing to be changed, because the Soviet mentality, imposed for three generations, requires at least one generation to get rid of. But even if you take the mentality of people, the changes that are going here now, within a year are equal to the changes you may have in the west for decades.

16.22

Oil field

For decades, the Soviet Union failed to exploit the oil riches of Azerbaijan. Only a fraction of the oil was found, and what money was made went to Moscow. History is now giving Baku another chance. The first boom made a few people very rich. The Soviet years made almost everyone poor. The challenge this time is to benefit all.

Ends 16.50

& 10 mins extra footage