Turkmenistan and Azerbaijan Agree to Explore New Offshore Oil Field Together

Two countries are going to explore new gas and oil field in the Caspian Sea named Dostluk together, according to the CentralAsia news agency.

Parliament of Turkmenistan has ratified a memorandum between Ashgabat and Baku on the exploration. As expected, the joint treaty should be signed by presidents Gurbanguly Berdimukhamedow (Turkmenistan) and Ilham Aliev (Azerbaijan). Russia and Turkey are considered as the other two partners of the project.

This agreement means a lot for both countries because they had argued about the field since the collapse of the Soviet Union. The field is located right at the state border between Azerbaijan and Turkmenistan sectors in the Caspian Sea and used to have two names – Serdar (Turkmen version) and Kyapaz (officially used by Baku). 

Many times Azerbaijan suggested Turkmenistan exploring the field in conjunction with each other. However, because Ashgabat had considered the oil field as its property for years, the relations between countries were not so good. The first president of Turkmenistan Saparmurat Niyazov even closed the country’s embassy in Baku.

Everything was changed when Turkmenistan became more open and started to participate in regional infrastructural projects and transport corridors to Europe. 

In March 2020 Berdimukhamedov made an official visit to Baku where the two sides reached a deal. As a symbol of the new approach, both presidents have decided to rename the oil field Dostluk, which means friendship in both Azeri and Turkmen.

In January 2021 foreign affairs ministers signed a memorandum on joint exploration and exploitation of the hydrocarbon resources at the Dostluk oil field. After that, the document was ratified by the parliaments of both countries.