Disputed Drilling Rights in the Caspian Sea
The Conflict
The Caspian Sea seabed contains many unexplored and undeveloped oil and gas reserves. These reserves are potentially worth billions of dollars to the nations and companies that develop them. Although some development is underway, legal wrangling by the five Caspian Sea border nations over who owns the reserves has held up production and led to intense negotiations over the sea's future.
Political
• High-level leaders and negotiators from the five nations bordering the Caspian Sea have met numerous times throughout the decades, but they have been unsuccessful in resolving the claims and territorial issues.
Economic
• Multi-billion dollar commitments are on the line as investors wait for the bordering nations to resolve the dispute.
Territorial
• Each nation brings different, and often shifting, views and opinions regarding how to mark the boundaries of the Caspian Sea.
The boundary-markings of the Caspian Sea—and thus ownership of the resources in the Sea—have long been debated by the five countries lining its coast: Azerbaijan, Iran, Kazakhstan, Russia, and Turkmenistan. In May 2001 a meeting was held between the deputy foreign ministers of Azerbaijan and Turkmenistan to set out the Caspian Sea's delimitation (boundary-marking) between their two countries.
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