[SoothSayer]

A few years back the Caspian Sea was going to be "the future Saudia Arabia".

Is this still on the cards? Or has the hope faded away?

Also, do the neigbouring countries have significant - and validated - reserves?

Googling leads to confusing results - does anyone have an up-to-date clear picture of the role of Azerbaijan, Kazakhstan etc?

I am interested to see if production growth in this region will "feed" China's growth for a few decades, relieving pressure elsewhere.

[lutherquick]

I would say it's a state(s) secret.

Any wind that there is plenty, and NGO money would be flooding in. Any democratically elected leader that didn't sing the American national anthem, would immediately be given a color revolution, for democracy? no, for American democracy.

Despite that I would agree with Simmons that we need a World wide audit, I think that would be dangerous... Because that audit would lead to external manipulation, more visions of wmd here and there... and the next PNAC nut job would be waiting and hoping for the next 9/11 to motive the population into some invasion...

Let's just assume peak is here, and plan for the worse. And let each region protect it's own energy resources, let each audit for it's own planning. America assumes we need to do this collectively, like some UNION to save the world when in facts it's America that is at jeopardy. China will get plenty of energy because she has something of value to trade, her exports. The nations that are at risk are those that are designed improperly (suburbia & SUV) and contribute little in the form of trade. US debt is not trade. Moving energy 12,000 miles is stupid, consume it local and let flourishing economies grow by proxy to energy.

What's in the Caspian is nobody's business but those countries there.

[Raminagrobis]

$this->bbcode_second_pass_quote('SoothSayer', 'A') few years back the Caspian Sea was going to be "the future Saudia Arabia".

.

[ROCKMAN]

Updating a very old thread. Interesting that the govt which has just began producing one of the largest oil fields discovered in decades is expressing concern about facing their peak oil. I guess someone is paying attention over there.

Reuters – Kazakhstan's oil production could slump sharply over the longer term if no new deposits are developed, its oil minister said on Tuesday, just days after the launch of output at the huge Kashagan oilfield. Kashagan, located in the Caspian Sea off western Kazakhstan, produced its first oil last week after years of delay and some $50 billion invested by a multi-national consortium to date. The second-largest oil producer after Russia among former Soviet states, Kazakhstan forecasts its oil exports will peak at over 90 million tonnes in 2025, Oil and Gas Minister Uzakbai Karabalin told a government meeting. The vast steppe nation of 17 million, which is Central Asia's largest economy and holds 3 percent of global recoverable oil reserves, exported 68.14 million tonnes of crude oil and gas condensate last year, official statistics show.

Citing a "pessimistic scenario", Karabalin said Kazakhstan's oil output would peak at about 110 million tonnes by 2030. "Our optimistic plan will depend on the approval of further stages of development at Kashagan and other large deposits and, besides, on whether we will be able to launch new fields that can be discovered over this period," Karabalin said.