Russia,
Iran, and three others agree Caspian status, but not borders
Reuters Staff
5 MIN READ
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AKTAU, Kazakhstan (Reuters) - Iran and
four ex-Soviet nations, including Russia, agreed in principle on Sunday how to
divide up the potentially huge oil and gas resources of the Caspian Sea, paving
way for more energy exploration and pipeline projects.
However, the delimitation of the seabed -
which has caused most disputes - will require additional agreements between
littoral nations, Iranian President Hassan Rouhani said.
For almost three decades, the five
littoral states - Russia, Iran, Kazakhstan, Turkmenistan and Azerbaijan - have
argued over how to divide the world’s biggest enclosed body of water.
And while some countries have pressed ahead
with large offshore projects such as the Kashagan oil field off Kazakhstan’s
coast, disagreement over the sea’s legal status has prevented some other ideas
from being implemented.
One of those is a pipeline across the
Caspian which could ship natural gas from Turkmenistan to Azerbaijan and then
further to Europe, allowing it to compete with Russia in the Western markets.
Some littoral states have also disputed
the ownership of several oil and gas fields, which delayed their development.
POST-SOVIET ISSUE
The dispute began with the fall of the
Soviet Union which had had a clearly defined Caspian border with Iran. In
negotiations with post-Soviet nations, Tehran has insisted on either splitting
the sea into five equal parts or jointly developing all of its resources.
None of its neighbors have agreed to those
proposals and three of them - Russia, Kazakhstan and Azerbaijan - effectively
split the northern Caspian between each other using median lines.
Azerbaijan, however, has yet to agree on
how to divide several oil and gas fields with Iran and Turkmenistan, including
the Kapaz/Serdar field with reserves of some 620 million barrels of oil.
The three countries have tried to develop
the disputed fields while at times using warships to scare off contractors
hired by other sides. As a result, none of the disputed projects has made much
progress.
Speaking after the signing on Sunday, all
five leaders praised it as historic event, but provided little detail about
provisions on splitting the seabed.
However, making it clear that the document
is no final solution, Rouhani said border delimitation would require further
work and separate agreements, although the convention would serve as a basis
for that.
TRANS-CASPIAN PIPELINE
Moscow has no outstanding territorial
disputes but has objected, citing environmental concerns, to the construction
of a natural gas pipeline between Turkmenistan and Azerbaijan which would allow
Turkmen gas to bypass Russia on its way to Europe.
It remained unclear whether the convention
adopted on Sunday would definitely clear a way for the pipeline. Kazakh
President Nursultan Nazarbayev said the document allowed pipelines to be laid
as long as certain environmental standards were met.
Ashley Sherman, principal Caspian analyst
at energy consultancy Wood Mackenzie, said that although the signing itself was
“an unprecedented milestone” for the region, the immediate implications for the
energy sector would be limited.
“We consider a Trans-Caspian Gas Pipeline
(TCGP) unlikely, even in the longer term”, he said in an email. “Clarity on the
legal status will shine more light on the commercial and strategic obstacles to
a TCGP, from infrastructure constraints to supply competition, not least from Azerbaijan
itself.”
In the upstream sector, the increasing
intent for joint projects in the south Caspian is very promising, Sherman said.
“Stranded fields and frozen exploration
projects may well come back on the agenda,” he said.
However, with offshore Caspian oil and gas
production already almost at 2 million barrels of oil equivalent per day, the
impact from new fields - if and when disputes about their ownership are settled
- might be limited.
“The scale of the projects in disputed
waters is not comparable to the existing super-giant fields, from Azeri Chirag
Guneshli and Shah Deniz in Azerbaijan to Kashagan in Kazakhstan,” Sherman said.
Reporting by Olzhas Auyezov; Editing by
Richard Balmforth
https://ca.reuters.com/article/topNews/idCAKBN1KX0CI-OCATP
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