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A primer on Caspian Oil
Jerome a Paris, The Oil Drum: Europe
Oil & gas in the Caspian has a long history – indeed it is one of the earliest oil production regions in the world, with Baku a major oil center in the second half of the 19th century and beyond. What makes the situation today interesting is the simultaneuous appearence of three things:
(i) new reserves discovered offshore,
(ii) the fact that, with the break up of the Soviet Union, the oil is located in (new) countries that are keen to have foreign investment and are now one of the few oil provinces around the world that still welcome Western oil majors, and
(iii) these countries have no direct access to the world markets.
(22 Nov 2006)
Caspian oil field to produce 25% more
Carola Hoyos, Financial Times
Kazakhstan’s giant Kashagan oil field will produce 25 per cent more oil than expected once it hits peak production, international companies developing the field have found.
News that the field, the largest and most important discovered in more than 30 years, will yield significantly more than than the 13bn barrels forecast is a breakthrough as dwindling world oil supplies and problems accessing oil-rich countries such as Iraq raise doubts about meeting rapidly increasing demand.
The Financial Times has learnt that peak production of the Kashagan field in the Caspian Sea, due at the end of the next decade, is expected to be 1.5m barrels a day, 25 per cent higher than published estimates. The field, operated by Eni, Italy’s biggest oil and gas group, is expected to pump this amount each day for more than 10 years, meaning it will yield 10 per cent more reserves than currently assumed.
(26 Nov 2006)
Jerome a Paris de-constructs this article at oil production: clutching at straws.
Submitter Alfred Nassim writes: “Let’s hope the pipeline works.”
Caspian Sea oil producers discuss establishing organization
Mehr News Agency
Khazar Exploration and Production Company has carried out negotiations with the Caspian Sea region’s oil producing and exporting countries to establish a joint organization.
(27 Nov 2006)
Disneyland by the Caspian Sea
AP via Travel News
Turkmenistan — A theme park designed by Turkmenistan’s eccentric dictator as a national version of Disneyland has opened in the ex-Soviet country’s capital.
The $50-million US recreation complex, based on Turkmen folk art and fairy tales, occupies 33 hectares and consists of 54 attractions. It begins with a map of Turkmenistan and a roller-coaster zigzags over a mini replica of the Caspian Sea, the source of the country’s immense oil and gas reserves.
Visitors are greeted by characters of Turkmen folklore: Khudoiberdy repels an attack of evil spirits, and obese Bovendjik swallows everyone he sees.
President Saparmurat Niyazov, Turkmenistan’s former Communist boss, has ruled for 20 years with an iron fist, eliminating opposition and creating an elaborate cult of personality.
He has ordered everyone to call him the Great Turkmenbashi, or Father of All Turkmen. He penned the Rukhnama, a code of moral guidelines in which world history is centred on Turkmenistan.
(27 Nov 2006)
