WASHINGTON, Feb. 19 (UPI) -- Awash in oil revenues, the Kazakh government is now to spend some of its lucre on a pressing defense need that its military planners have overlooked since independence in 1991 -- a navy.

In a military development largely unnoticed in the West, Kazakh Defense Minister Daniyal Akhmetov said last October, "This is a very serious issue. We have a blueprint for developing the navy. We have set up a directorate for naval forces, which will function within the Defense Ministry from 1 January next year."

In March 1992 the former Soviet Union's minuscule Caspian navy was divided up among Russia, Azerbaijan, Turkmenistan and Kazakhstan. In late 1993 Kazakhstan received about 25 percent. Planning for the Kazakh navy actually began in 1994. After a year and a half of consultations, in January 1996, Russia and Kazakhstan signed military cooperation agreements, which included Russian assistance in developing a Kazakh maritime force.

Certainly, the hardy Kazakh sailors have something to defend, as some analysts believe the Caspian could hold "possible reserves" of up to 250 billion barrels of oil, along with potential reserves of more than 200 billion barrels. With oil hovering at nearly $100 a barrel, the value of Caspian energy deposits stands at more than $4 trillion; estimates of the region's natural gas deposits stand at 325 trillion cubic feet.

The Kazakh navy is going to have to constrain its blue-water activities to the Caspian, however. The Caspian's sole egress is via the 37-mile Volga-Don Canal. The channel is the least known of the world's strategic waterways, but it provides a maritime link between the Volga, which empties into the Caspian, and the Don River, which disgorges into the Sea of Azov, a northeast corollary of the Black Sea, which in turn provides access via the Turkish Straits to the Mediterranean and from there the "world ocean." Unfortunately for Kazakh admirals, the Volga-Don Canal can only handle ships of up to 5,000 tons, and in some places is less than 12 feet deep, which somewhat limits the size of the nation's battle fleet. An alternative might appear in the future, however, as in June 2007 Kazakh President Nursultan Nazarbayev proposed an alternative Eurasia Canal project across Russia's North Caucasus, which would shorten shipping routes by nearly 600 miles.