Page 5 - FSUOGM Week 04 2021

FSUOGM COMMENTARY FSUOGM

Source: EIA.

waiting for approval from Turkmen authorities convention last summer on the Caspian’s legal
of a 50% farm-out to an unnamed “supermajor”. status. While the deal was a breakthrough in
It reportedly held talks with France’s Total. negotiations, establishing zones of jurisdiction
Buried Hill says on its website that it “is and fishing rights, as well as prohibiting foreign
awaiting a political resolution before it can military in the region, it did little to address the
continue with full appraisal and development.” decades-long dispute over how the Caspian’s
The company has not commented on the new 48bn barrels of oil and 8 trillion cubic metres of
memorandum. gas should be carved up among its littoral states.
The disagreement over maritime borders in The division of these spoils has instead been left
the Caspian has also upended other offshore to countries to decide on a bilateral basis. And
projects. Azerbaijan awarded the Alov explora- in any case, Iran is yet to ratify the convention.
tion block to a BP-led group in 1998, and the UK Azerbaijan, Kazakhstan and Russia have
major attempted to survey the site in 2001 but already divided up the northern Caspian among
its vessels were forced to withdraw after being themselves through bilateral agreements based
approached by gunships from Iran, which also on median lines, allowing them to advance a
claims the area. number of major projects. However, Iran and
The heads of Azerbaijan, Iran, Kazakhstan, Turkmenistan have taken a more obstinate
Russia and Turkmenistan signed a landmark approach, although the memorandum with

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