North Korea, which long enjoyed bottling up South Korea for strategic reasons, now spies lucrative opportunities as gatekeeper for rail, gas and oil connections between South Korea and Russia.
The picture painted by authorities is a tabloid monument to financial fakery, replete with whispers of rare diamonds, Iraqi oil, connections to the Chinese Politburo and even to American presidents.
It is also a major centre of Iraq's petroleum industry, with oil pipeline connections to Tripoli, Lebanon, and to Yumurtalik, on the Turkish coast.
The Atlantic Richfield Company plans to sell oil pipelines, connections and storage tanks near Cushing, Okla., to eliminate one obstacle to its proposed $30 billion buyout by BP Amoco.
But in the end his oil industry connections and repeated denunciations of Israeli policy on settlements, made him a controversial choice for Downing street.
Like another vessel already operating, the Q4000, the Helix will take in oil through connections beneath the new seal.
There have been widespread reports of oil industry connections and financial conflicts among many, if not most, Fifth and Eleventh Circuit judges.
But quite aside from his oil-industry connections and his dismal environmental record in Texas, Mr. Bush has said he is not convinced that the scientific evidence for global warming warrants policy action.
It had been alleged that the family made 30 billion rand ($2 billion) from a string of businesses oiled by connections to Jacob Zuma, the former president, and other influential figures.
All have an undercurrent of palm oil, a culinary connection to Bahia's West African heritage.
