Caspian Sea News

Iranian Foreign Minister Abbas Araqchi said on Sunday a Ukrainian attack on an Iranian commercial vessel "cannot go unanswered".Iran said the attack in the Caspian Sea resulted in an explosion that killed one sailor and injured another.Araqchi made the comments in calls with EU foreign policy chief Kaja Kallas and Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov, Araqchi posted on X.Lavrov, in a statement posted on the Russian Foreign Ministry's website, offered condolences in connection with the death of a sailor in the attack.Lavrov said Araqchi thanked local authorities in the Russian region of Astra

A legal framework could be drawn up this year on regional cooperation to monitor and seek to adapt to falling water levels in the Caspian Sea, which is shrinking at an accelerated pace, a senior Azerbaijani water official told Reuters.The level of the Caspian, the world's largest inland body of water, has fallen by about a metre (yard) over the last five years, 1.5 metres in the last decade and 2.5 metres over the last 30 years, said Aliagha Azizov, deputy head of the State Control…

Rapid falls in the level of the Caspian Sea are affecting ports and oil shipments and threatening to inflict catastrophic damage on sturgeon and seal populations, according to Azerbaijani officials.The Caspian, the world's largest salt lake, holds significant offshore oil reserves and is bordered by five countries that are all major producers of oil or gas or both: Azerbaijan, Iran, Kazakhstan, Russia and Turkmenistan.Azerbaijan's Deputy Ecology Minister Rauf Hajiyev told Reuters that the sea had been getting shallower for decades…

UAE-based AD Ports Group and KMTF (Kazmortransflot), an offshore logistics and services subsidiary of the Kazakh National Oil Company (KazMunayGas), have signed a deal to launch a joint venture that will provide offshore and shipping services for energy companies in the Caspian Sea.The joint venture will be 51 percent owned by AD Ports Group and 49 percent owned by KMTF. The two companies also signed a deal to pool tanker resources."The joint venture, which will look at investments opportunistically will offer a broad range of services…

Russian and Kazakh oil exports via the Caspian Pipeline Consortium's (CPC) Black Sea terminal face at least one month's disruption each once repairs begin on two of its three single point moorins (SPMs), CPC confirmed on Tuesday.Oil exports via the two SPMs have been suspended due to equipment damaged by bad winter weather, CPC said on Monday, confirming a Reuters report on Saturday.CPC added that a planned inspection of the third SPM at the Yuzhnaya Ozereyevka terminal would require it to be temporarily shut for a matter of hours.

Malaysian FPSO specialist and offshore support vessel owner Bumi Armada has decided to sell its icebreaking vessels operating in the Caspian Sea for Lukoil, in line with its plan to exit the offshore marine service business.Bumi Armada said Wednesday that its board of directors had agreed to sell subsidiaries owning Ice-class vessels operating in the Caspian Sea for $44.5 million in cash. The company plans to use $38 million of the proceeds from the sale to reduce debt, with the remaining $6.5 million going toward working capital.The four subsidiaries being sold, collectively referred to as "Ice Class Vessel Companies," are Bumi Armada Marine Uray…

Azerbaijan’s state energy company, SOCAR, said on Sunday its offshore gas platforms in the Caspian Sea were safe after media reports of a large fire in the area.Videos and photos published online showed smoke rising above the sea off the coast. Russia’s RIA news agency cited SOCAR as saying that an eruption of mud was the most likely reason for that, although it did not explain how it could cause a fire.“No incidents have happened at the offshore fields and industrial structures controlled by SOCAR…