Publication Name

Previous Page

Next Page

Page Background

Environment and Security

20

The development of energy resources is not

a new phenomenon in the Caspian region.

Oil (in the form of naphta) has been extract-

ed and used for centuries in the Apsheron

peninsula (situated in today’s Azerbaijan).

From the mid-19th century, oil extraction in

the Caspian (especially in the Baku oilfields)

became an industrial operation

10

. Western

and Russian interests allowed the Baku oil-

field to expand and by 1897 it accounted

for almost half of global oil production (Djal-

ili and Keller, 2003; Akiner, 2004)

11

. Fierce

competition over transport routes emerged:

north by sea to Astrakhan, west overland to

Batumi (and then via tanker to international

markets), or south by pipeline to the Per-

sian Gulf. The latter plan prompted fierce

opposition from the British, who saw it as

a challenge to their strategic interests, so

the pipeline was not built. The competition

over oil transport routes in the 19th century

bears important similarities with the “pipe-

line politics” of the late 20th century, after

the disintegration of the USSR.

Oil transformed the city of Baku, which by

1908 had a population of 248 300 (Akiner,

2004). By the end of the 19th century Baku

had become one of the largest industrial

centres of the Russian empire. The first im-

portant oil field in Kazakhstan was discov-

ered in 1911, east of Guriev (now Atyrau)

��

��

��

��

��

��

��

��

��

��

��

��

��

��

��

��

��

��

��

��

��

��

��

��

��

��

��

��

�

��

��

��

��

��

��

��

��

��

��

��

��

��

��

��

��

��

��

��

��

��

��

��

��

��

��

��

��

��

��

��

��

��

��

��

��

��

��

�

Striving for energy security

The Caspian region