To some here, it looked like the fix was in for Unocal when President Bush named a former Unocal consultant, Zalmay Khalilzad, as his special envoy to Afghanistan late last year.

Unocal announced in October 1997 that it would lead a seven- member consortium, called Central Asia Gas Pipeline Ltd. The group planned to build a 790-mile pipeline from the Turkmen-Afghan border to Multan, Pakistan. A $600-million extension to supply an even bigger market in India was also under consideration, Unocal said.

At least two groups of Unocal officials from the U.S. visited Afghanistan in 1997 and '98, headed by a Unocal vice president, Chris Taggart, said Khodainoor Mandar Khail, who met them as president of Afghan National Oil Co.