Turkmenistan and Azerbaijan argue about the oil fields in the Caspian Sea bed

The oil fields Serda , Osman and Omar are the subject of a dispute between Turkmenistan and Azerbaijan. President of Turkmenistan Gurbanguly Berdymuhammedov has stated that the country is planning to apply to the international court of arbitration in order to protect its rights over the disputed oil and gas fields on the Caspian Sea bed.

The Turkmen Government has hired high ranking legal advisers to study the issues and prepare appropriate documents for submission to the arbitration court. It has also asked the appropriate bodies to warn international companies operating in these oil fields that if Turkmenistan wins its case it intends to sue these companies to recover any losses the country has accrued from exploiting these oil fields without the relevant permission or payment.

5 countries share the Caspian Sea shelf: Russia, Kazakhstan, Turkmenistan, Iran and Azerbaijan. The sea borders between them are not determined as of yet. Iran claims that the sea should be divided into 5 parts, whereas other countries are claiming the sea zones they owned during the Soviet period. Many things are still unclear and will probably not become clear in the near future.