This is a direct challenge to nascent American hegemony over the area.
For some strange reason, the Asian continental powers take issue with that, and have decided to do something about it, right now.
Winging it, I'd say they saw the Americans committing to a showdown with Iran, and decided to take advantage of it. Have Keyboard. Will Travel. :)
Oil is being disputed mostly between the West and China (as destinations for the export pipelines). The West scored a big point with the construction of the BTC, but China remains in the game with the Kumkol-China pieline inaugurated last month (not connected yet to the main fields).
On the gas side, Russia has ABSOLUTE control over the resources of the region and this is not goign to change for a long time. BP has a toehold in Azerbaijan (gas to be exported to Turkey), but that's it, and that will be it for the foreseeable future. In the long run, we're all dead. John Maynard Keynes
