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Environment and Security

22

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between 2.9 and 3.8 million barrels a day,

which would exceed annual production by

South America’s largest oil producer, Ven-

ezuela (EIA, 2007) although expectations

may be tempered by the fact that Kasha-

gan, one of the biggest Kazakh oil fields will

not come online before 2013. As for gas,

regional production reached approximately

138 billion cu m (bcm) in 2004 and 163 bcm

in 2007, exceeding the combined produc-

tion of South America, Central America,

and Mexico (BP 2008).

The large energy reserves of Kazakhstan and

Turkmenistan have attracted the interest of

international energy companies and states

alike. The combination of high oil prices,

geographical position – at the crossroads of

Europe and Asia, two energy importing re-

gions – diversification of demand in Europe

and USA, fast growing fuel consumption in

India and China and political instability in

the Middle East, ensure that the Caspian

region will continue to attract considerable

international attention in coming years.