Georgia's oil pipeline is key to U.S. support Georgia's pipeline: It allows the West to reduce its reliance on Middle Eastern oil, bypassing Russia and Iran

US President George W. Bush (L) talks with Russian Prime Minister Vladimir Putin (R) before a banquet for heads of state in the Great Hall of the People in Beijing on August 8, 2008. President Bush made a new plea for freedom of expression in China just hours before the opening ceremony of the Olympic Games. The US leader, who has said he does not want to politicise his attendance at the Games, said he could be candid with China because the two countries had built up a strong relationship built on "respect and trust". AFP PHOTO/Mark RALSTON/POOL (Photo credit should read MARK RALSTON/AFP/Getty Images) less US President George W. Bush (L) talks with Russian Prime Minister Vladimir Putin (R) before a banquet for heads of state in the Great Hall of the People in Beijing on August 8, 2008. President Bush made a new ... more Photo: Mark Ralston, AFP/Getty Images Photo: Mark Ralston, AFP/Getty Images Image 1 of / 1 Caption Close Georgia's oil pipeline is key to U.S. support 1 / 1 Back to Gallery

There is more than meets the eye to the frantic U.S. efforts Friday to talk Russia and American ally Georgia out of war over an obscure mountain tract most Americans have never heard of.

A look at the map and your gas credit card bill shows why.

The breakaway province of South Ossetia is claimed by Georgia, a former Soviet republic that cast its lot with the United States and the West to the eternal irritation of Moscow. But South Ossetia has resisted Georgia's rule and has been under Russia's sway for years.

Georgia sits in a tough neighborhood, shoulder to shoulder with huge Russia, not far from Iran, and astride one of the most important crossroads for the emerging wealth of the rich Caspian Sea region. A U.S.-backed oil pipeline runs through Georgia, allowing the West to reduce its reliance on Middle Eastern oil while bypassing Russia and Iran.

The dispute makes the Bush administration the middleman between a promising ally it wants to help and the powerful former adversary next door whose help it needs.

Washington praises democratic development in Georgia, delights in its contribution of combat troops for Iraq and acknowledges valuable intelligence and counterterrorism cooperation.

Moscow's cooperation is vital to numerous Washington aims in Iran, North Korea and elsewhere.

"For all those reasons, and the fact that Georgia has demonstrated that it is a close ally, we cannot simply sit by and say, 'So be it - what does South Ossetia mean to us?' " said Janusz Bugajski, director of the new European democracies project at the Center for Strategic and International Studies. "Georgia as a whole means quite a lot."

The pipeline that crosses Georgia can pump slightly more than 1 million barrels of crude oil per day, or more than 1 percent of the world's daily crude output. The 1,100-mile pipeline carries oil from Azerbaijan's Caspian Sea fields, estimated to hold the world's third-largest reserves. Its potential vulnerability was already in the spotlight after it was sabotaged this week, apparently by Kurdish separatists.

Most of the oil is bound for Western Europe, where gas prices are even higher than the $4 and more a gallon that U.S. consumers are now paying. With only so much oil to go around, what the pipeline carries affects prices elsewhere. The United States also hopes it will be a model for other development projects that could have a more direct effect on the U.S. market.

Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice was on the phone Friday morning, appealing for calm in South Ossetia, a patch of craggy farmland that is home to about 70,000 people - fewer than live in Youngstown, Ohio. In a statement later, she reiterated U.S. commitment to Georgia's "territorial integrity."

President Bush discussed the violence with Russian Prime Minister Vladimir Putin in Beijing, while the presumptive Democratic and Republican candidates to replace Bush issued worried statements. Tanks rolled as Bush spoke.

South Ossetia is one of the few places where ethnic, nationalist and other complications mean that the Cold War didn't die. U.S diplomats refer to these neighborhood squabbles as "frozen conflicts," a euphemism that belies the long-recognized threat that seemingly petty disputes can easily provoke a wider war.

The United States, European nations and others raced Friday to keep the conflict from spreading. The State Department appealed for a cease-fire and prepared to send a mediator to the region.

"We are asking our friends, and the United States among them, to somehow to try to mediate and try to persuade Russia to stop this military aggression and invasion of Georgia," said Vasil Sikharulidze, Georgia's ambassador to Washington.