Projects of Caspian oil production and export postponed

Hope to provide Europe with Caspian hydrocarbons has been hampered by an acute shortage of investment for large-scale development of new fields due to falling oil prices.

The fall in the oil prices has raised questions about the terms of the new oil fields development in the Caspian region, as well as the prospects for new projects of hydrocarbon exports to foreign markets.

The main oil reserves in the Caspian region are located in Kazakhstan. The production is carried out at the Tengiz field in Kazakhstan and complex of oil fields Azeri-Chirag-Guneshly, located in Azerbaijan. The production at the Kazakh field Kashagan is not carried out for a while. The rest of the littoral Caspian states have much smaller reserves.

The recent two decades in the Caspian region were passed under the banner of accelerated oil production and increase in its exports. Over the past 20 years, Kazakhstan and Azerbaijan have made significant strides in increasing production and creating new export capacity, which allowed them to supply hydrocarbon resources to foreign markets.

The strategy of the Caspian region’s countries was based on a large-scale attraction of foreign investment, strengthening stability in the region, economic development of the countries at the expense of fuel and energy complex.