Azernews.Az

The Caspian region will be a hotbed of potential conflict this year due to disputes over its vast energy resources, a US scholar wrote in an article posted on the CBS TV channel’s website.

The Caspian basin, along with the Strait of Hormuz and the South China Sea, are "potential energy flashpoints" where bloody conflict may erupt, which would threaten the world economy and cause a hike in oil prices, Michael Klare, a professor of peace and world security studies at Hampshire College, wrote in the article, "War watch 2012: Welcome to a very edgy world".

"The region would be a hotbed of potential conflict even if the Caspian basin did not harbor some of the world’s largest undeveloped reserves of oil and natural gas, which could easily bring it to a boil," he wrote.

According to energy giant BP, the Caspian area harbors as much as 48 billion barrels of oil -- mostly buried in Azerbaijan and Kazakhstan -- and 449 trillion cubic feet of natural gas, with the largest supply available in Turkmenistan. This puts the region ahead of North and South America in total gas reserves and Asia in oil reserves.

"But producing all this energy and delivering it to foreign markets will be a monumental task," Klare wrote. "The region’s energy infrastructure is woefully inadequate and the Caspian itself provides no maritime outlet to other seas, so all that oil and gas must travel by pipeline or rail."

Klare said further that Russia, long the dominant power in the region, is pursuing control over the transportation routes by which Caspian oil and gas will reach markets.