At the beginning of last decade five new states emerged from existing two on the coast of Caspian Sea and this lead to significant changes in the region. During Soviet Union period republics situated on the coast of Caspian Sea kept their relations mainly through Moscow in the frames of socialist union and that’s why Iran had only one neighbor to settle regional issues with. But after the Soviet Union collapsed the new states were attracted by common problems of the region such as use of resources under the Caspian Sea as a main source of financial means. Turkmenistan possesses significant reserves of natural gas and holds fourth place in the world, that’s why this state is not interested in the use of Caspian deposits. For Azerbaijan and Kazakhstan Caspian Sea reserves play huge role. Meanwhile for Russia and Iran, also Turkmenistan the use of energy resources is important from the political and state sovereignty stand point.

After the agreement known as “Agreement of the Century” was signed in Baku new consortium of oil companies was established consisting of Arabian states, Turkish oil companies, Russian company – “Lukoil” and Azerbaijani company “SOCAR”. Thus the new era of the Caspian Sea energy resources use began. According to the project evaluated in 7.5 billion dollars there was planned the development of three oil deposits, their capacity is approximately 600 million ton raw oil. One of the important facts is that under the pressure of the United States and American companies Iranian companies are dismissed from this contract and 5% share was given to Turkey.
One of the main issues in this period became the status of Caspian Sea. Settlement of this problem would lead to determination of share of each coastal country in the region.

No sooner the negotiations began on the use of resources than there emerged a new question: What is Caspian basin: sea or lake? If it’s considered a sea then the articles of the convention on marine law since 1982 must apply to the regulations in this region. According to this convention oil deposits and other reserves belong to the coastal states. From the very beginning Azerbaijan and Kazakhstan insisted on the above mentioned version of splitting the Caspian Sea. But Russia doesn’t want the Caspian Sea to get the status of sea.