WASHINGTON, Feb. 8 (UPI) -- In the mad Western dash for Central Asian energy resources, investors initially focused on Azerbaijan and Kazakhstan. Following the death of Turkmen President Saparmurat Niyazov in December 2006, Western energy firms fell over themselves courting Turkmenistan's new president, Gurbanguly Berdymukhamedov. Ten years before Niyazov's death, however, Malaysia's Petronas won Turkmenistan's first offshore drilling agreement and began prospecting in the Turkmen sector of the Caspian.

Iran has emerged as an unlikely champion of Europeans concerned by their growing dependence on Russia, giving the Nabucco pipeline project a fillip.

WASHINGTON, Jan. 11 (UPI) -- One relatively obscure Western oil company managed to beat out competitors such as ExxonMobil to develop Turkmenistan's oil fields: Ireland's Dragon Oil.

Before the 1991 Soviet collapse, Russia dominated the economies of the other 14 republics. In the decade and a half since, Western companies have been angling to acquire a piece of the former Soviet Union's energy assets. In the last few years, however, China has become an increasingly important regional player, and in a nasty Christmas present for both Washington and Moscow, on Dec. 28 China National Petroleum Corp.'s subsidiary PetroChina announced it will invest $2.16 billion to underwrite construction of a planned Central Asia-China natural gas pipeline.

WASHINGTON, Dec. 31 (UPI) -- The year 2007 will be seen as a major turning point in the development of Caspian energy, perhaps the most significant 12 months since the 1991 collapse of communism opened up the possibilities of development of one of the world's last great oil frontiers.

WASHINGTON, Dec. 14 (UPI) -- Historians a century from now will look back in wonder at events surrounding the post-Soviet development of Caspian energy reserves in the aftermath of the collapse of communism in 1991.

In a world of record-high energy prices, Wall Street bulls seem once again to have been outmaneuvered by the wily Kremlin for Turkmen energy assets.

Since the death last December of Turkmen President Saparmurat Niyazov, interested diplomats and energy company executives from around the world have jetted into dusty Ashgabat airport for meetings with Niyazov's successor, Gurbanguly Berdymukhamedov.

WASHINGTON, Oct. 19 (UPI) -- The recent second Caspian Sea Littoral States Summit, which concluded earlier this week, saw a broader consensus developing among the five Caspian littoral nations than at any time since the dissolution of the Soviet Union in 1991.