Black Gold — Arnold R. Beckhardt

Large scale oil development in the Caspian Sea part of the world started in the late 19th century and Russia was the dominant player until very recently. The construction of the Baku-Tbilisi-Ceyhan pipeline by a consortium led by British Petroleum has changed the dynamics of the relationships in the Caspian energy corridor. Black Gold is a story of the game between who has the oil and who needs the oil. Roy Neely, sixty-five-year-old-widower, ex Air Force Vietnam fighter-bomber pilot, former CIA surveillance trainer and retired FBI psychologist takes on a sensitive assignment: How to protect the flow of oil from the Caspian Sea to Europe. The clock is ticking on a plot to disrupt the Baku-Tbilisi-Ceyhan pipeline. Neely accepts the challenge to protect the pipeline while struggling to find meaning to his own life after the sudden death of his wife.