WASHINGTON, Jan. 24 (UPI) -- While most visitors to the rising petro-state of Kazakhstan are dazzled by the oil-fueled construction boom in Astana and the former capital, Almaty, an equally significant town is rising on the eastern shores of the Caspian.

What is most extraordinary about Aktau is its youth; the town was only founded in 1961 as a small village, after large crude oil deposits were discovered nearby. Two years later, Aktau was granted municipal status, and in 1964 was named after the Ukrainian poet Taras Shevchenko, who was exiled there in the 19th century by the czarist government. Following Kazakhstan's Declaration of Independence in 1991, the city reverted to its original name.

Aktau now has the feeling of an oil boom town port. The majority of Kazakh oil exports are transmitted via the 1.1 million barrel per day Caspian Pipeline Consortium Pipeline. The 938-mile pipeline, opened in 2001, runs from Kazakhstan's massive Tengiz oil field to Russia's Novorossiisk maritime terminal on the Sea of Azov. In contrast, Aktau is landlocked, as the sole egress from the Caspian is the Volga-Don Canal, which transits the Russian Federation. Despite such limitations, Aktau's oil exports are steadily rising; in 2007 Aktau exported more than 11 million tons of cargo, of which oil accounted for 9.3 million tons, a 13.5 percent increase over the port's 2006 exports. In perhaps the ultimate capitalist accolade, the port even boasts the Marriott Renaissance Aktau Hotel, with "Most hotel rooms with view of Caspian Sea."

Aktau has now reached its capacity for oil exports and the Kazakh government is undertaking an ambitious port expansion project to raise the facility's annual handling capability to 20 million tons of oil and 3 million tons of dry cargo. The total cost of the project is estimated to be $314 million.

Despite its relative isolation, Aktau is truly an international facility, as its oil exports are sent by tanker to Russia's Makhachkala port in Dagestan, Azerbaijan's Baku port and to Iran's Caspian Neka terminus. Kazakh maritime oil exports across the Caspian have seen the rise of a Kazakh tanker fleet. Kazmortransflot was formed in 1998 following a government decree to develop sea transport and is owned by Kazakhstan's Transport and Communications Ministry and KazMunaiGas. Lacking its own nautical construction facilities, Kazmortransflot subcontracted its construction to Russian shipyards. Kazmortransflot's first tanker was the 12,000-ton, $18.75 million Astana, designed by the Russian maritime bureau Vympel.