After the discovery of oil fields, Baku became a special place, where various economic and political interests of international coalitions, industrial clans and leaders were concentrated and clashed. VK begins publishing chapters from the book by Ismail Agakishiyev "History of the Baku Oil Industry and the Second Oil Boom (second half of the 19th century - beginning of the 20thcentury)" The book presents a historical analysis of the emergence and current state of the Azerbaijani oil industry.
The director of the Rosneft Department for the Development of Offshore Oil and Gas deposits, Ivan Chernov, said that the company at that time was still not completely clear as to which particular sector the deposit was located in. 5 Rosneft was ready to conduct consultations with the Turkmen side. The signature of the Russian company on the agreement was Azerbaijan's trump card. According to a representative of SOCAR, only 50% of the Kyapaz field was located in the Turkmen sector of the Caspian Sea. There had already been examples of sharing disputed oil fields in global practice. For example, the UK signed a contract to develop fields in the North Sea, located in the territorial waters of Norway with one of the companies. After discussing the situation, the parties came to the decision to leave the sector for the UK, as the contract had already been concluded.
In 1997 and 1998 a similar controversial situation developed in the Caspian Sea between Russia and Kazakhstan. The Russian Federation announced a tender for a deposit in the north of the Caspian Sea, but without mentioning its name. There were several fields in this sector: Zhemchuzhina, Morskaya and some others that Kazakhstan considered partially its property. LUKOIL became the winner of the tender. Kazakhstan protested in connection with the tender. According to the country's leadership, it was necessary to take into account the sectored division of the Caspian Sea at the signing of the agreement. On April 9th 1998 the president of Kazakhstan, Nursultan Nazarbayev, arrived in Moscow. The presidents of the two countries for the first time achieved unilateral agreement on the sectoral division of the bed of the Caspian Sea at a meeting hosted by the Russian President "on the principle of equidistance from the coast."
The interested parties, however, did not reach an agreement on the development of the Kyapaz field. ITAR-TASS reported that Russian deputy prime minister Valery Serov informed by telephone the president of Turkmenistan, Saparmurat Niyazov, that Russia had withdrawn from the agreement with Azerbaijan on the development of the Caspian Kyapaz deposit. Turkmenbashi was pleased and said that it was an act of restoration of justice, as in his opinion this deposit belonged to Turkmenistan.
At a meeting with Boris Yeltsin on August 7th 1997, Niyazov warned the president of Russia that if the contract was not to be cancelled, his country was going to withdraw from the CIS and that he was going to address the UN and other international organizations "in connection with the violation of country's sovereignty." After the meeting with Niyazov, Yeltsin announced that "this agreement had not been coordinated with him, and that there was a need to cancel it in order not to aggravate the situation in the Caspian Sea."
Not willing to damage relations with the leadership of Turkmenistan, a country with which Gazprom had beneficial economic relations, the Russian government suggested that Russian companies withdraw from the contract for the development of the Kyapaz field. As a result, Rosneft pulled out of the deal. In its August statements, SOCAR once again urged Russian companies to reconsider their position, and stressed that Kyapaz was entirely located in the Azerbaijani sector of the Caspian Sea. Despite the fact that Rosneft withdrew from the agreement, LUKOIL only suspended its work under the contract. The Ministries of Foreign Affairs of Turkmenistan and Azerbaijan exchanged notes on the subject of this field. On September 1st 1997 Turkmenistan announced an international tender for the development of its oil fields. Ashgabat included the Serdar field (Kyapaz) on the list. Turkmenistan had not withdrawn its claim to the contractual fields of Azeri and Chirag either.
In its controversy with Azerbaijan, Turkmenistan used maps in which the central line was in favor of this country. According to Baku, the Kyapaz field (Promezhutochnaya), Azeri (26 Baku Commissars) and Chirag (Kaverochkin) fields were located in the Azerbaijani sector of the Caspian on all the maps of the former USSR. The second SOCAR statement is of great interest regarding the ownership of the Kyapaz oil field. It appeared in this document that, in addition to differences existing between the positions of the Republic of Azerbaijan and the Republic of Turkmenistan, there were a number of agreed issues. Thus, in its statement SOCAR welcomed the activities of Turkmenistan in developing Caspian hydrocarbon resources and attracting foreign investment in oil projects. SOCAR accepted the fact that Turkmenistan insisted on the sectoral division of the Caspian Sea. Niyazov, who had not objected to a condominium regarding the regulation of the legal status of the Caspian Sea before the meeting with the leadership of the Russian Federation on August 7th 1997, dealt a crushing blow to these principles at this very meeting. For the first time he reached an agreement with Boris Yeltsin on the sectoral division of the Caspian Sea.
The second step in Russia's retreat from the principle of shared use of the Caspian Sea was the announcement of a tender for the development of the northern sector of the Caspian Sea by the Ministry of Natural Resources of Russia. Thus, the number of supporters of the sectoral division of the Caspian Sea increased. In essence, only Iran did not support this principle at the time. SOCAR expressed its full solidarity with the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of Turkmenistan that, until a comprehensive resolution of the issue of the legal status of the Caspian Sea, the littoral states were allowed to develop fields on the basis of the sectoral division conducted in 1970 by the USSR Ministry of the Oil and Gas Industry.
In 1970, in order to divide the Caspian Sea into sectors, the Azerbaijani Republic and particularly Kaspmorneft were entrusted with all activities in the oil and gas sector in the region. Azerbaijani oil workers conducted a range of activities in the Turkmen sector of the Caspian. As noted in the statement, from 1972-1990 they discovered 65 prospective structures and five deposits.
