Balkan

Balkan Province occupies Turkmenistan's Caspian Sea coast, containing the country's major oil deposits and the strategic port of Turkmenbashi (formerly Krasnovodsk) that connects to Azerbaijan, Russia, and Iran across the Caspian. Oil production reached 8.3 million tons nationally in 2024, with Balkan hosting the largest share of extraction and refining. The province's name derives from the Balkhan Mountains—not the European Balkans—that rise from the eastern shore. Soviet industrialization built petrochemical facilities at Turkmenbashi and oil extraction infrastructure across the lowlands, creating the economic base that generates government revenue alongside Mary's gas. The 'Door to Hell'—the Darvaza gas crater that has burned since 1971 when Soviet engineers accidentally collapsed a drilling rig—sits in Balkan as an accidental tourist attraction in a country that rarely issues visas. With oil and gas constituting 60% of GDP and 40% of budget revenues, Balkan's extraction sites underpin state finances even as diversification efforts lag. By 2026, trans-Caspian pipeline projects connecting to Azerbaijan and potentially Europe could transform Balkan into a more significant export corridor—if geopolitics permits bypassing Russia.