The Special Envoy for Eurasian Energy is a diplomatic position within the

United States Department of State The United States Department of State (DOS), or State Department, is an executive department of the U.S. federal government responsible for the country's foreign policy and relations. Equivalent to the ministry of foreign affairs of other na ...

. The

envoy Envoy or Envoys may refer to: Diplomacy * Diplomacy, in general * Envoy (title) * Special envoy, a type of diplomatic rank Brands *Airspeed Envoy, a 1930s British light transport aircraft *Envoy (automobile), an automobile brand used to sell Br ...

is "engage directly with senior

Europe Europe is a large peninsula conventionally considered a continent in its own right because of its great physical size and the weight of its history and traditions. Europe is also considered a Continent#Subcontinents, subcontinent of Eurasia ...

an,

Central Asian Central Asia, also known as Middle Asia, is a region of Asia that stretches from the Caspian Sea in the west to western China and Mongolia in the east, and from Afghanistan and Iran in the south to Russia in the north. It includes the form ...

Russia Russia (, , ), or the Russian Federation, is a transcontinental country spanning Eastern Europe and Northern Asia. It is the largest country in the world, with its internationally recognised territory covering , and encompassing one-ei ...

n and other political and business leaders to support the continued development and diversification of the

energy In physics, energy (from Ancient Greek: ἐνέργεια, ''enérgeia'', “activity”) is the quantitative property that is transferred to a body or to a physical system, recognizable in the performance of work and in the form of ...

sector."Statement by the Press Secretary - March 31, 2008
The White House The position was filled by

Richard Morningstar Richard L. Morningstar (born 1945) is the former United States Ambassador to Azerbaijan. He was formerly Special Envoy of the United States Secretary of State for Eurasian Energy. Currently, Ambassador Morningstar is the founding director and ch ...

C. Boyden Gray

The legislation calling for the position was drafted in 2007. In February 2008, responding to questions on the issue at a briefing before the

Senate Foreign Relations Committee The United States Senate Committee on Foreign Relations is a standing committee of the U.S. Senate charged with leading foreign-policy legislation and debate in the Senate. It is generally responsible for overseeing and funding foreign aid p ...

, Secretary of State

Condoleezza Rice Condoleezza Rice ( ; born November 14, 1954) is an American diplomat and political scientist who is the current director of the Hoover Institution at Stanford University. A member of the Republican Party, she previously served as the 66th Un ...

reaffirmed that the State Department was looking to appoint a special energy coordinator for the Central Asian and

Caspian region The Caspian Sea is the world's largest inland body of water, often described as the world's largest lake or a full-fledged sea. An endorheic basin, it lies between Europe and Asia; east of the Caucasus, west of the broad steppe of Central Asi ...

Thomas R. Pickering Thomas Reeve "Tom" Pickering (born November 5, 1931) is a retired United States ambassador. Among his many diplomatic appointments, he served as U.S. Ambassador to the United Nations from 1989 to 1992. Early life and education Born in Orange, ...

was reportedly high on the list, but he withdrew himself from consideration in early 2008. On March 31, 2008 the Bush administration named

C. Boyden Gray Clayland Boyden Gray (born February 6, 1943) is an American lawyer and former diplomat who served as White House Counsel from 1989 to 1993 and as U.S. Ambassador to the European Union from 2006 to 2007. He is a founding partner of the Washington ...

as the first envoy to this position. On 14 November 2008, Gray became part of the presidential delegation assigned to attend the Baku Energy Summit in

Baku Baku (, ; az, Bakı ) is the capital and largest city of Azerbaijan, as well as the largest city on the Caspian Sea and of the Caucasus region. Baku is located below sea level, which makes it the lowest lying national capital in the world an ...

Azerbaijan Azerbaijan (, ; az, Azərbaycan ), officially the Republic of Azerbaijan, , also sometimes officially called the Azerbaijan Republic is a transcontinental country located at the boundary of Eastern Europe and Western Asia. It is a part of th ...

.Personnel Announcement
a November 10, 2008

White House The White House is the official residence and workplace of the president of the United States. It is located at 1600 Pennsylvania Avenue NW in Washington, D.C., and has been the residence of every U.S. president since John Adams in ...

news release The delegation also included Ambassador to Azerbaijan Anne E. Derse and

Secretary of Energy The United States secretary of energy is the head of the United States Department of Energy, a member of the Cabinet of the United States, and fifteenth in the presidential line of succession. The position was created on October 1, 1977, when Pr ...

Samuel Bodman Samuel Wright Bodman III (November 26, 1938 – September 7, 2018) was an American businessman, engineer, and politician who served as the 11th United States Secretary of Energy during the George W. Bush administration, from 2005 to 2009. He was ...

. Gray resigned from this position on January 20, 2009.

Richard Morningstar

Richard L. Morningstar Richard L. Morningstar (born 1945) is the former United States Ambassador to Azerbaijan. He was formerly Special Envoy of the United States Secretary of State for Eurasian Energy. Currently, Ambassador Morningstar is the founding director and ch ...

was named to the position on April 20, 2009. He led the United States delegation to the energy conference in Sofia on April 24th and 25th, 2009. On July 13, 2009, Morningstar represented the United States at the signing ceremony of the intergovernmental agreement of the

Nabucco pipeline The Nabucco pipeline (also referred as Turkey–Austria gas pipeline) was a failed natural gas pipeline project from Erzurum, Turkey to Baumgarten an der March, Austria to diversify natural gas suppliers and delivery routes for Europe. The pi ...

. He has strongly opposed the possible participation of

Iran Iran, officially the Islamic Republic of Iran, and also called Persia, is a country located in Western Asia. It is bordered by Iraq and Turkey to the west, by Azerbaijan and Armenia to the northwest, by the Caspian Sea and Turkmeni ...

in the Nabucco project. Morningstar left office in March 2012 become the

United States Ambassador to Azerbaijan The United States recognized Azerbaijan's independence on December 25, 1991, and announced the establishment of diplomatic relations on February 19, 1992. The Baku embassy was opened by interim Ambassadors of the United States, ambassador Rob ...

, and the role has been left vacant since.

References

External links

Office of the Special Envoy for Eurasian Energy
{{DEFAULTSORT:Special Envoy For Eurasian Energy Petroleum politics United States–European relations United States–Asian relations Energy policy of the United States 2008 establishments in the United States