Russia, EU See Caspian Energy Dreams Deferred

Entering the year, Russia appeared to have the upper hand in securing a lion’s share of the immense natural gas and oil reserves in the Caspian basin.

Gazprom, confident in the strategic advantages it had over outsiders through its access to Soviet-era infrastructure in the region, significantly upped the ante at the beginning of 2008. The Russian gas giant, after signing a deal in 2007 with Turkmenistan and Kazakhstan for the construction of a new pipeline along the northeastern Caspian shore, offered to buy gas supplies from those two countries, as well as Azerbaijan, at “European prices.”
RadioFreeEurope