Читать книгу: «My Discovery of America 1993 – 2004», страница 3

President Clinton and Vice President Gore met for several hours with President Niyazov, hoping that a warm welcome, several nights at Blair House, a Marine honor guard and a $750,000 grant would win his cooperation in an economic struggle over control of the region's oil and gas.

His visit was widely covered in the US and Turkmen media. After official meetings and trips around the country, Niyazov planned to sign an agreement between Turkmenistan and two Western oil companies – American Mobil Corporation and its British partner Monument Oil & Gas Plc.

* * *

On April 24, 1998, Turkmenistan President Niyazov, Mobil Chairman and CEO Lucio Noto and Monument Chairman and CEO Antony Craven Walker got together at the White House to sign the agreement forming the tripartite strategic alliance to explore and develop oil and gas in Western Turkmenistan. The US Secretary of Energy Federico Pena also came to attend the ceremony.

It so happened that they needed an interpreter at the signing ceremony and the only party that brought interpreter with them, namely myself, was Mobil. Therefore, Lou Noto suggested that I could do the job at the ceremony and I gladly agreed. Saparmurat Niyazov and Tony Craven Walker were also happy with that since I worked for them as interpreter before.

So, with a little help from myself, the document was signed and later that year, Mobil Oil in alliance with Monument Oil and Gas signed a production sharing agreement with the State Turkmenoil Company and invested more than USD 40 million in the development of the Burun oil field in western Turkmenistan.

And In July 1999 Mobil received a license to explore the Garashsyzlyk oil field and planned to increase its investment in Turkmenistan to up to USD 500 million in the future.

* * *

The second event, or rather adventure, was our trip to the Walt Disney World Resort in Orlando and the tour of Florida. My son Misha and I decided to fly from Moscow to JFK Airport in New York City by Swissair with a layover in Switzerland. I was the most comfortable coach class flight than we had ever had. After a one-night stay at a Best Western Hotel near the JFK to de-stress, we took the subway to LaGuardia Airport via Times Square where we took a taxi. It was Election Day in the US, November 2, 2004, and the presidential election was ending with George W. Bush winning. The eager crowds awaiting the results and the neon billboards were impressive. On the way to LaGuardia, we crossed the East River on the famous Brooklyn Bridge with the Spider-Man image, which Misha immediately recognized, much to the surprise of the taxi driver.

At LaGuardia Airport, we boarded a plane to Tampa, Florida, where we rented a great American car and headed to Orlando. There we checked into a cozy Best Western hotel and, as I have said, we decided to stick to Moscow time instead of Florida time, otherwise, jet lag would really have really bothered us, and in a week, we would have to go back to Moscow and readjust to Moscow time again.

Besides the advantages of easy driving along empty Florida roads in the middle of the night, we escaped midday Florida heat by going to bed in the afternoon and waking up after midnight.

I have already said that in the middle of the night we encountered guards at the gate of the Kennedy Space Center Visitor Complex who told us to go back to our hotel, but, looking for adventure, we did not go straight back home.