Landmark Caspian Sea deal to define boundaries and resource use
The largest inland body of water will be neither sea nor lake but will benefit from "special" status. The leaders of Iran, Russia, Azerbaijan, Kazakhstan and Turkmenistan signed the deal. Some 50 billion barrels of oil and 300 trillion cubic metres of natural gas are at stake. The sea is famous for its caviar, the roe of wild sturgeons.
Tehran (AsiaNews) – Russia, Iran, Azerbaijan, Kazakhstan and Turkmenistan have reached a landmark agreement on how to divide the Caspian Sea and put an end to the dispute over the legal status of the body water that began with the collapse of the Soviet Union.
Under the Convention on the Legal Status of the Caspian Sea, the Caspian Sea is neither a lake nor a sea, despite its name. The agreement establishes a formula for dividing up its fishing and seabed resources, including oil and gas.
The deal was signed in the Kazakh city of Aktau on Sunday, which Turkmenistan declared "Day of the Caspian Sea".
Its provisions will determine how gas and oil pipelines will be built, how environmental issues will be managed, and how its various ecosystems will be protected.
The signatories also established that no other regional or world power will be allowed to establish a military presence in the area.
The decision was long in the making. According to experts, it will be essential to easing tensions around among the five nations.
For Kazakh President Nursultan Nazarbayev, the signing of the Convention is a major event, a view shared by his colleagues, including Iranian President Hassan Rouhani and Russian President Vladimir Putin.
According to the Kremlin, the agreement keeps most of the Caspian Sea as a shared area; however, the seabed and natural resources are divided between the five countries.
The sea will benefit from a special status with free access from all the coasts, going beyond the concept of territorial waters.
A key factor is the delimitation of seabed boundaries, whose precise definition must be the subject of further negotiations in bilateral rather than multilateral discussions.
The question of calling the Caspian a sea as opposed to a lake is not academic. What is at stake is ownership of rich oil and gas resources. It's estimated there are 50 billion barrels of oil and nearly 300 trillion cubic feet (8.4 trillion cubic metres) of natural gas beneath its seabed.
If treated as a sea, the Caspian would be divided based on median lines, running at an equal distance from the acknowledged coast baselines of the five states. If treated as a lake, each state would get an equal share. For example, had the Caspian been deemed a lake, Iran would benefit at the expense of Kazakhstan.
The deal signed in Aktau is the fifth since 2002. More than 50 ministerial and technical meetings have been held since the collapse of the Soviet empire.
The Caspian Sea is famous for its caviar, which comes from the roe of its sturgeons. About 80 to 90 per cent of world production of caviar comes from here; however, the latter has been in the decline in the past few decades.
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