This article is published with the kind permission of the Asia and Pacific Rim Institute of the American-Jewish Committee, USA. Rich oil and gas reserves lie under and around the Caspian Sea, mostly oil in Kazakhstan, and Azerbaijan, and gas in Turkmenistan. The proven reserves are about the same order of magnitude as around the North Sea: 16 billion barrels of oil and 8.3 billion cubic metres of gas, according to the US government. And the possible reserves are much greater: 163 billion barrels of oil and 17.6 billion cubic metres of gas, which would make them equal to 16 per cent of 1996 global proven reserves of oil, and 12 per cent of gas