WE are the Anglo American empire, Kendall. WE are the governments of Britain, Canada, the US, and Australia, who formed this unholy Anglo American coalition to both protect "our" declining oil fields by gaining control over fields that aren't as depleted and difficult to extract oil from. That means gaining control over oil interests historically controlled by the Russians and the French, but also to gain control of the other oil fields that haven't been tapped much, like in Uzbekistan.

Here is an excerpt of an article from 1996 that sheds a bit of light on what is going on. Note where the dateline is from.

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Unocal signs agreements for Uzbekistan oil and gas, pipeline infrastructure studies

Sugar Land, Texas, Nov. 4, 1996 -- Unocal Corporation today announced that agreements have been signed with the Republic of Uzbekistan for Unocal to evaluate the country's potential crude oil and natural gas resources and to determine the feasibility of utilizing part of Uzbekistan's pipeline network to tie into Unocal's proposed Central Asia Oil Pipeline (CAOP). The CAOP, when constructed, will link Central Asia oil producers to a new deepwater port on Pakistan's Arabian Sea coast.

The agreements were signed by the government of the Republic of Uzbekistan; Uzbekneftegaz, the national oil and gas company; Unocal International Energy Ventures, Ltd., a Unocal subsidiary: and Delta Oil Pipeline Company (Uzbekistan), Ltd., and Delta Oil Company (Uzbekistan), Ltd., units of Delta Oil Company of Saudi Arabia, Unocal's coventurer in the projects.

The first agreement calls for evaluating existing pipelines in Uzbekistan that could be used as part of the gathering system for the CAOP. In addition, Unocal will work with experts from Uzbekistan to estimate future Uzbekistan production levels from oil and condensate fields and determine potential export volumes for the CAOP.

A second agreement calls for a joint study with Uzbekneftegaz of the potential of new oil and gas exploration areas in Uzbekistan. The company said the joint study could lead to negotiations for contracts related to oil and gas production in the country.