Turkmenistan agrees to meeting on Caspian Sea.

Turkmenistan agreed to an expert meeting, to be held in early October, to discuss delimitation of Caspian Sea offshore oil fields, Azeri Foreign Minister Gasan Gasanov told.
Delimitation is to use a median line method. Gasanov cited a note of the Turkmen Foreign Ministry as stating agreement to negotiate delimitation. Caspian oil resources and fishing grounds are claimed by five littoral states - Russia, Azerbaijan, Turkmenistan, Kazakhstan and Iran. Gasanov said the expert meeting would involve law scientists, surveyors and oil-sector delegates.
The consent to the meeting had been preceded by months of correspondence between embassies, with several offshore oil fields at issue between Turkmenistan and Azerbaijan. Debate has flared over the oil field Kyapaz, which is called Serdar by Turkmenistan, after Russia's LUKoil and Rosneft and Azerbaijan's State Oil Company had signed a joint development contract. Heeding protests of Turkmenistan, Russia unilaterally reversed the deal. Turkmenistan put Serdar for international biddings, eliciting protest from Azerbaijan.