="justify">With rising oil and gas prices the Caspian Basin is increasingly becoming a new area of interest, hope and competition for global energy needs. Some term it the "Second Middle East," like South Korean Prime Minister Han Seung-soo, who last month visited Kazakhstan, Turkmenistan and Azerbaijan to promote his country's energy interests in the basin.

t or not, the landlocked basin holds a projected 3-4 percent of the world's energy supplies. The US Energy Information Administration has estimated that the basin could hold between 17 billion and 33 billion barrels of proven oil. ("Proven reserves " are defined by energy experts to be 90 percent probable.) Other experts estimate that the basin could hold "possible reserves" of up to 233 billion barrels of oil. ("Possible reserves" are considered 50 percent probable.) By comparison, global oil champion Saudi Arabia has 261 billion barrels of oil while the US has 23 billion.
The five Caspian Sea Basin countries -- Russia, Iran, Turkmenistan, Kazakhstan and Azerbaijan --have an estimated 4.83 trillion cubic meters (170.4 trillion cubic feet) of proven natural gas reserves, and possible reserves of 8.30 trillion cubic meter (293 trillion cubic feet). Putting aside Russia and Iran, which have difficult relations with the West, Kazakhstan, Turkmenistan and of course Azerbaijan hold the most potential to meet the West with the ever-increasing energy needs in terms of oil and natural gas.

In this regard, with its geographical proximity to Europe, alternative supply routes bypassing Russia and very cooperative government, Azerbaijan stands out as an important rising energy power. That is why every year participation in the Caspian International Oil and Gas Exhibition and Conference in Baku keeps increasing. This year 380 companies from 33 countries and a large number of officials attended the conference, held this week.

Speaking at the conference, State Oil Company of Azerbaijan Republic (SOCAR) Vice President Khoshbakht Yusifzade said Azerbaijani gas production would soar to 47.5 billion cubic meters (bcm) annually in 2015 from a forecast 27.4 bcm this year. In 2007, production had been 16 bcm. He also stated that Azerbaijani oil production is expected to hit 65-67 million tons by 2015. Azerbaijani President Ilham Aliyev said last Tuesday that Azerbaijan would boost oil production by about 16 percent this year to 50 million metric tonnes, and to 60 million metric tonnes (442 million barrels) in 2009. He also said his country, which consumes 10-11 billion cubic meters (388.3 billion cubic feet) of gas annually, had enough natural gas to satisfy domestic requirements for the next 100 years.

Adding to these upbeat prospects, energy giant British Petroleum (BP), leading exploration and development of the Shah Deniz offshore gas field, announced the discovery of major deposits in the field last year. BP-Azerbaijan President Bill Schrader told the conference that the company was on track to extract 8 bcm of gas from Shah Deniz by the end of the year. "The future possibilities we see here are truly promising," he said. "Shah Deniz is one of the world's largest and most challenging gas fields."

Other experts say that Azerbaijan has 1.5 trillion cubic meters (52.95 trillion cubic feet) of prospected gas reserves, including the Shah Deniz offshore deposit in the Azerbaijani sector of the Caspian Sea, with recoverable reserves of 1.3 trillion cubic meters (45.89 trillion cubic feet) of natural gas. With all these proven, possible and recoverable reserves of oil and gas, Azerbaijan is on its way to becoming a major energy power. It is rising very quickly, just like Kazakhstan, which I wrote about two weeks ago here in this column.