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Caspian Sea Basin

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Pipeline politics. Environmental Issues. Present. Discharge and spills from oil and gas drilling ... Legal issues. Many bilateral treaties (to share seabed and ... – PowerPoint PPT presentation

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Title: Caspian Sea Basin


1
Caspian Sea Basin
  • CE397 Transboundary Water Resources
  • L. White

2
(No Transcript)
3
Littoral states
4
Oil and natural gas basins
5
Pipeline politics
6
Environmental Issues
  • Present
  • Discharge and spills from oil and gas drilling
  • Untreated waste
  • Agricultural run-off
  • Overfishing
  • Potential
  • Construction of new pipelines and infrastructures
  • Rise of the Caspian Sea
  • Political instability of the region

7
Caspian Environment Programme
  • Aim of the CEP (1998)
  • Environmentally sustainable development and
    management of the Caspian Sea environment,
    including living resources and water quality, so
    as to obtain the utmost long-term benefits for
    the human populations of the regions, while
    protecting human health, ecological integrity,
    and the regions sustainability for future
    generations.

8
Legal issues
  • Currently no multilateral agreement as to how to
    divide the seabed and the waters.
  • Main problems
  • Iran claims that bilateral agreement between Iran
    and USSR is still valid
  • Hinders development of legal framework for
    environment
  • Sea or lake ?

9
Legal issues
  • Many bilateral treaties (to share seabed and/or
    waters)
  • Until general agreement, median line convention
    signed by Ru, Az and Kz
  • Iran disagrees. It wants to equally divide the
    sea (20 each)
  • Tk disagrees. Method does not take into
    consideration geographical peculiarities

10
Legal issues
  • Turkmenistan proposes the 45-mile division
  • Rest of the sea is open for shipping
  • Iran still wants 20 of the sea

11
Discussion
  • How would the lack of strict environmental
    regulations affect international companies (used
    to complying with laws) investing in the Caspian
    Sea Region ?
  • How would competition against local companies
    be affected ?

12
Discussion
  • Fishing constitutes the primary interest of
    Russia in the Caspian Sea whereas Azerbaijan and
    Kazakhstan are focused on oil production.
  • The latter are less concerned about environment
    degradation than the former.
  • Given these divergent objectives, how could we
    provide the littoral states with coherent and
    practical environmental regulations ?

13
Discussion
  • One of the major investors in the region is the
    US. However, US law prohibits US companies to
    directly trade with Iran.
  • How canceling the embargo would modify the
    geopolitical landscape in the region ?

14
Discussion
  • As the new littoral states (mainly Azerbaijan
    and Kazakhstan) move toward free markets, is the
    state of the environment in the Caspian Sea more
    likely to improve or degrade ?
  • Why ?

15
Discussion
  • To what extent can we trust international
    organizations when it comes to environmental
    protection ?
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