According to Azerbaijan officials, the rapid fall in the Caspian level is affecting ports and oil delivery, and threatening to do devastating damage to the Stranger and Mahar population.
The world’s largest Salt Lake, Caspian has major oil reserves and has five countries that are all major oil or gas producers or both: Azerbaijan, Iran, Kazakhstan, Russia and Turkmenistan.
Azerbaijan Deputy Minister of Environment Rauf Hajif told Reuters that the sea has been decreasing for decades, but data shows that the trend is intensifying.
He has declined by 0.93 meters (3 feet) in the last five years, with a decrease of 1.5 meters in the past 10 and 2.5 meters in the past 30, he estimated the current rate of 20-30 cm each year, in an interview.
“The backdrop of the coastal belt changes the natural conditions, disrupts economic activity, and creates new challenges for sustainable development,” said Hajif, who represents Azerbaijan in a joint working group with Russia, who first discussed the issue in April.
Despite the growing ties between the two countries, according to the protocol signed between the two countries, the Working Group plans to monitor and respond to the matter in September.
Russia mainly connects the issue with climate change, but Azerbaijan has also accused the Volga River of construction of Russian dams, which provides 80 % of the water entering the caspin.
Hajif said that the declining water level is already affecting the lives of the coastal population and the work of the ports. There are about 4 million people on the coast of Azerbaijan, and a total of about 15 million in the Caspian region.
He said the ship faces increasing difficulties when entering the port of Baku, the capital of Azerbaijan, and making a panel. He added that this is reducing the cargo capacity and increasing the cost of logistics.
Oil cargo was reduced
According to Body International Maritime Port Director Elder Salakov, the largest in Azerbaijan’s waters of the Caspian Sea, the transport of oil and oil products through the Dobandi Oil Terminal, the first half of the first half of 2025 decreased 810,000 tonnes, less than 880,000 in the same period last year.
He described it as a slight reduction and attributed it to the usual order fluctuations. However, he said that the declining level of water is making it necessary to perform major dreading work to ensure stable and uninterrupted ports operations.
He told Reuters that in 2024, more than 250,000 cubic meters were dragged in the Dobandi Oil Terminal to ensure that the largest tankers could enter without any restrictions.
In April, the Baku Ship Yard ended the construction of a new dreading pot, Engineer Solon Kaizov, which is soon to enter the service. Salkhov said he could deepen the bottom up to 18 meters to help maintain the port’s capacity.
Hazard to fish and seals
The deputy minister, Hajif said that the water retreat is destroying the beds of wet areas, logins and headquarters and threatening the survival of some marine species.
The biggest blow is for the stronghold, which is valuable to their cavier, which is already in danger of being extinct. They are losing up to 45 % of their summer and autumn residences and are disconnected from their traditional spinning ground in the rivers.
He added that the Caspian seals are also at risk of the disappearance of the maritime and seasonal ice fields, shrinking the north, where they raise.
“With a reduction of 5 meters in the surface sea, the seals lose up to 81 % of their growing places, and with a reduction of 10 meters, they are almost completely deprived of suitable proper sites,” said Hajif.
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