Environmental effectiveness analysis of Caspian hydrocarbon development

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2009
Atay, Deniz
Caspian region's hydrocarbon deposits constitute one of the significant reserves in the world. This has caused a competition among state and non-state actors in exploiting these resources since 19th century. After the Soviet demise, the newly independent states embraced the economic gains made possible with the existence of these reserves. However oil production may have negative implications on environment, ecological balance and biodiversity if carried out in an uncontrolled manner. This study aims to identify these negative impacts and measures taken to control this process. Measures taken on national, regional and international levels are analyzed to find out the extent of their effectiveness in protecting the environment during oil operations. National legal frameworks of each littoral state, impacts of civil society organizations, regional and international legal frameworks and efforts of international organizations are evaluated. Since most of these improvements are relatively new with no viable outcome at hand, the process rather than the results is focused on. The application of time, holism and action-orientation parameters to these improvements to find out the environmental effectiveness of each shows that there is a preliminary burgeoning awareness in matters of environmental protection yielding to more effective efforts than before. Yet the economic gains remain too significant a temptation for the states in the region to be sacrificed. In the cases where measures taken to protect the environment undermine these economic gains, environmental effectiveness is forsaken.

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Citation Formats
D. Atay, “Environmental effectiveness analysis of Caspian hydrocarbon development,” M.S. - Master of Science, Middle East Technical University, 2009.