Environment and Security: Transforming risks into cooperation

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Eastern Caspian

Environment and Security

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(Akiner, 2004). The same period saw at- tempts to extract oil on the Caspian coast of Turkmenistan on the Cheleken peninsula and at Krasnovodsk (now Turkmenbashy). In 1991 Caspian oil production represented only 3% of total output in the USSR (Djalili and Kellner, 2003: 186). In global terms the importance of other regions such as the Middle East overshadowed the Caspian as an oil producing region for a long time. However, in the last decade, the situation has changed. Current oil estimates for the five states range from 17 to 49 billion barrels (bbl) of proven reserves (Ladaa, 2005; EIA, 2007; BP 2008). Globally the region’s reserves represent between 3 to 5% of world reserves. As for natural gas, proven reserves in the Caspian region are estimated at 5.9 trillion cubic me- tres, comparable to Saudi Arabia with pos- sible reserves estimated at 7.2 trillion cubic metres (BP 2008). At the end of 2007 Kaza- khstan’s proven oil reserves were estimated at 39.8 bbl (3.2% of world’s reserves) and Turkmenistan’s at 0.6 bbl (BP 2008). The frenzy surrounding the region’s oil and gas reserves that characterized much of the 1990s, is somewhat tempered by an analysis of production figures. In 2006 regional oil production reached roughly 2.3 million barrels a day, comparable to Brazil, South America’s second largest oil producer. By 2010 the EIA expects the countries of the Caspian region to produce

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