In an interview to “Kommersant”, Ambassador-at-large of the Russian Ministry of Foreign Affairs Igor Bratchikov said that it is not allowed to lay pipelines along the bottom of the Sea without approval of all five Caspian states.
Bratchikov was quoted as saying: “The “pipeline-related” article of the Convention runs that the sides can lay main pipelines provided their projects meets environment safety requirements and standards, envisaged in the signed agreements, including the Framework Convention for the Protection of the Marine Environment of the Caspian Sea and relevant protocols to it.
[Pursuant to the Protocol on Environment Impact Assessment in a Transboundary Context], any of the five Caspian states is authorized to carry out environmental impact assessments of hazardous activities even at the design stage of the marine activity capable of causing environmental emergencies or adverse effects on the environment of the Caspian Sea.
It is obvious that the project to transfer hydrocarbons from one coast to another automatically falls within the scope of this protocol”.
Let us recall that on 12 August 2018 the Convention on the legal status of the Caspian Sea, pursuant to which the Caspian nations are allowed to lay pipelines, was signed in Kazakhstan.
However, the project needs to be approved by all sides after carrying out the environmental safety analysis.