the Argentinian businessman who sat in the desert negotiating with the Taliban

Carlos bulgheroni he owned Flanges (today part of Pan American Energy) when in 1990, after the fall of the USSR and the independence of the former Soviet republics, he saw the greatest business opportunity of his life: to exploit the largest gas reserves on the planet, by Kazakhstan and Turkmenistan.

Was in March 1995 when the President of Turkmenistan, Saparmurat Niazov instructed Bulgheroni to negotiate with Pakistan an impossible project: to convince the Taliban that authorize the construction of a gas pipeline through Afghanistan and cross the middle Pakistan until the connection to the existing gas pipeline between Islamabad and the wearing of Karachi, over the Indian Ocean.

Bulgheroni met and negotiated with the President of Pakistan, Benazir Bhutto, and held a major program of meetings with the Taliban. Despite this, he was never able to achieve his goal. In September 1996, the Taliban They took Kabul, they assassinated President Najibullah, and the region began to crumble.

The story was published in august 1997 in an edition of eight pages from Clarin economic supplement. The journalist Darius D’Atri, the author of the investigation, recounted it years later, on September 3, 2016, when Bulgheroni passed away at the age of 71. The following is part of this column.

“In August 1997, Clarín began investigating the history of Carlos Bulgheroni and his negotiations with the Taliban amid Bridas’ merger with Amoco.

Bulgheroni was fascinated by the idea of ​​building a gas pipeline that would draw gas from Turkmenistan through Pakistan, but for that he had to go through Afghanistan, a country at war. The reserves of Bridas, Bulgheroni’s company, in the Yashlar block in Turkmenistan were gigantic, but they were too far from existing pipelines. “

“This story was published, along with the photos of Bulgheroni in the desert of Afghanistan, negotiate and have lunch with the Taliban on a mat, for the first time on September 14, 1997 in an Economic Supplement survey which was a cover title: The secret affairs of Carlos Bulgheroni“.

“There were 8 pages of an almost unbelievable story of an Argentinian businessman who, after the fall of the USSR and the independence of the former Soviet republics, in March 1990, saw the greatest business opportunity of his life: exploiting the largest gas reserves on the planet, in Kazakhstan and Turkmenistan “.

D’Atri’s column continues: “When I started researching the Economic Supplement, Carlos Bulgheroni had been away from the media for years. He was suspicious of the press, and the idea of ​​showing his letters to the public was inversely proportional to his manner. to do business: direct contact with presidents, private negotiations and distrust of everyone ”.

“During several meetings in the Bridas building on the corner of San Martín and Libertador, Carlos Bulgheroni was changing. Eventually he agreed to share, but not publish, a photo album that showed him in Pakistan , in Afghanistan, in private planes between the capitals of the former Soviet republics and the surprising image of negotiations with the Taliban in the desert“.

“It was hard to convince him but ego is always a good argument. Bulgheroni knew that these images, published, would show it to Argentinian business circles and in particular to oil tankers as a aggressive negotiator. Finally, he agreed to cede the rights to publish the photos and the full history of his negotiation and merger with Amoco, the lawsuits that the Texan oil company Unocal initiated and the pharaonic idea of ​​uniting four countries with one. pipeline have reached economic level. Clarion Supplement “.