Since the mid-1990s, leaders of the Caspian Sea littoral states — Azerbaijan, Russia, Kazakhstan, Turkmenistan, and Iran — have repeatedly said that the sea should never become a point of contention between them or a reason for conflict in the international community.
But as energy prices skyrocket, the Caspian Sea Basin — home to some of the world’s largest hydrocarbon resources — is becoming a new focal point for fierce competition.
Amid the current insatiable demand for energy, “we are in the middle of a geopolitical competition for the control of Caspian natural gas,” according to analyst Federico Bordonaro of the Milan-based equilibri.net, an organization that provides conflict and energy analysis.
Russian gas giant Gazprom is among the major parties competing for resources in the Caspian Sea region, which the Russian company dominated in the 1990s.
