The land-locked Caspian Sea and surrounding area have proven oil reserves of between seventeen and thirty-three billion barrels{http://google.com/search?q=cache:www.eia.doe.gov/emeu/cabs/caspstats.html}. Extracting the oil is compounded by the fact that it is bordered by five different countries, include the former Soviet Republics Azerbaijan, Turkmenistan, and Kazakhstan{http://www.eia.doe.gov/emeu/cabs/Caspian/Background.html}. Current oil production there is below capacity. Recent decisions by countries such as the United States to move away from Middle Eastern oil is a further incentive to step-up production.

After extracting the oil, most of it needs to be transported by pipeline. Involving non-bordering countries too, this is even more politically and economically difficult. Some pipelines already exist in the area, and more have been proposed, some of which are currently being worked towards.

already built, starts just outside azerbaijan

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Baku-Tbilisi-Ceyhan_pipeline

proposed, starts in turkmenistan

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Trans-Afghanistan_Pipeline

http://www.cpc.ru/

In May 2005, Azerbaijan officially inaugurated a U.S.-backed pipeline, which will deliver oil from Caspian Sea oil fields to the Mediterranean

Baku-Tbilisi-Ceyhan, Baku-Supsa, and Baku-Novorossiysk oil pipelines and the Baku-Tbilisi-Erzurum

Caspian Pipeline Consortium, a 1,500 kilometer crude oil pipeline system dedicated to transporting oil from the Tengiz oil field in western Kazakhstan to Russia's Black Sea coast. Called the "project of the century,” CPC is a $4 billion project and is one of the largest foreign investment projects in Russia. http://www.pbnco.com/eng/clients/cpc/index.php