Documents

TKM: Proposed North-South Railway Project - Environmental Assessment Report. Based on its 2007 Presidential Decree, the Government of Turkmenistan (GT) signed a multilateral agreement in 2007, with its neighboring countries to construct new railway tracks to develop the North-South railway corridor for promoting regional trade, cooperation and integration. This is the region’s key route for transporting bulk goods, such as oil and oil products, mineral resources, agricultural products, and textiles.

The significance of the Project is that the proposed north-south railway line will improve Turkmenistan's accessibility to Kazakhstan, the Arabian Gulf countries, the Russian Federation, and South Asia; and increase regional trade. The Project will also contribute to sustainable economic growth in Turkmenistan and development of an integrated, efficient railway system in the region. The Project will reduce the transport cost, cut travel time, and improve accessibility to rural areas of the country. This will generate benefits beyond railway transport cost and time savings.

This report analyzes oil and natural gas in the Caspian region, focusing primarily on the littoral (coastal) countries of the Caspian Sea (Russia, Azerbaijan, Kazakhstan, Turkmenistan and Iran). A discussion of Uzbekistan is also included. While not a Caspian coastal state, a considerable amount of Uzbekistan's territory, along with its energy resources, lies in the geological Caspian basins.

The combination of foreign investment and rising energy prices allowed the coastal countries to shift from diverting oil extraction for local use to supplying both regional and world oil markets. The ability of countries to export greater volumes of Caspian crude oil and natural gas will depend on how quickly domestic energy demand rises in those countries, how quickly they can build additional export infrastructure to global markets, and whether expensive projects to develop Caspian resources can attract sufficient investment.