Hazar (until 1999 known as Çeleken, also written Cheleken; ;

Persian Persian may refer to: * People and things from Iran, historically called ''Persia'' in the English language ** Persians, the majority ethnic group in Iran, not to be conflated with the Iranic peoples ** Persian language, an Iranian language of the ...

: Chaharken ) is a seaport town located on the

Cheleken Peninsula The Cheleken Peninsula () is a peninsula located in western Turkmenistan, in the eastern shores of the Caspian Sea. The city of Hazar, former Cheleken, is located in the peninsula, which administratively belongs to Turkmenistan's Balkan Province ...

of the

Caspian Sea The Caspian Sea is the world's largest inland body of water, described as the List of lakes by area, world's largest lake and usually referred to as a full-fledged sea. An endorheic basin, it lies between Europe and Asia: east of the Caucasus, ...

. It is directly subordinate to the city of

Balkanabat Balkanabat (), formerly Nebit-Dag and Neftedag, is the administrative centre of Balkan Province, the largest province in Turkmenistan. It lies at the foot of the Balkan Daglary mountain range. Balkanabat is about 450 km west of Ashgabat a ...

Balkan Province Balkan Region () is the westernmost of the five regions of Turkmenistan. Clockwise from north it borders Kazakhstan, Uzbekistan (north); two provinces of Turkmenistan (east), Iran (south), and the Caspian Sea (west). The capital city is Balkana ...

of western

Turkmenistan Turkmenistan is a landlocked country in Central Asia bordered by Kazakhstan to the northwest, Uzbekistan to the north, east and northeast, Afghanistan to the southeast, Iran to the south and southwest and the Caspian Sea to the west. Ash ...

. In November 2022, it was downgraded from city-with-district-status to a town, and alongside

Gumdag Gumdag (romanized Russian Kum Dag) is a town in Balkan Province, Turkmenistan. It is located 43 km southeast of the city of Balkanabat. To the south-east of the town, lies the Boyadag Mud Volcano. Etymology The name is derived from two words in ...

, it became subordinate to City of

Etymology

Hazar (also Khazar, a backformation of ) was the name of a Turkic people, the

Khazars The Khazars ; 突厥可薩 ''Tūjué Kěsà'', () were a nomadic Turkic people who, in the late 6th century CE, established a major commercial empire covering the southeastern section of modern European Russia, southern Ukraine, Crimea, a ...

(''viz.''), who lived on the shores of the Caspian Sea and lent their tribal name to the body of water in several Turkic languages, including Turkmen. The current name of the city thus comes from the Turkmen name of the Caspian Sea. The former name, Çeleken (Cheleken), is the name of the former island, now peninsula, on which the city is located. The word comes from Persian ''chahar kan'' چهارکن, meaning "four wells" or "four riches", referring to the wealth of petroleum found on the peninsula.

Economy

Petroleum

This city and area are rich in

petroleum oil Mineral oil is any of various colorless, odorless, light mixtures of higher alkanes from a mineral source, particularly a distillate of petroleum, as distinct from usually edible vegetable oils. The name 'mineral oil' by itself is imprecise, ...

reserves. As far back as the 1st century, the Greek philosopher

Strabo Strabo''Strabo'' (meaning "squinty", as in strabismus) was a term employed by the Romans for anyone whose eyes were distorted or deformed. The father of Pompey was called "Gnaeus Pompeius Strabo, Pompeius Strabo". A native of Sicily so clear-si ...

said, "They say, diggers opened oily springs near the Okh River. Indeed, if a country has alkaline, asphalt, sticky, sulfurous waters, it is most likely to have oily springs. Only, their scarceness makes this fact miraculous." In 1743, a Captain by the name of Woodruff of a British merchant company remarked that 36 Ogurdjali families resided on the island. They had 26 large boats and some

oil well An oil well is a drillhole boring in Earth that is designed to bring petroleum oil hydrocarbons to the surface. Usually some natural gas is released as associated petroleum gas along with the oil. A well that is designed to produce only gas m ...

s. Prior to 1917, the Moscow Society, Cheleken-Dagestan Society, Kuzmin and Co, Bostondjoglo, South Caucasian Mining Society, and Second Moscow Group were among the established Russian oil companies. By 1925, after the establishment of

Soviet Turkmenistan The Turkmen Soviet Socialist Republic, also known as Soviet Turkmenistan, the Turkmen SSR, TuSSR, Turkmenistan, or Turkmenia, was one of the Republics of the Soviet Union, constituent republics of the Soviet Union located in Soviet Central Asia, ...

, wells had been nationalized and oil production decreased. By the late 1950s, oil production index went up again.

Dragon Oil Dragon Oil Holdings LLC is an independent international oil and gas exploration, development and production business. It is based and registered in Dubai and its operations are primarily located in Turkmenistan. The company was listed on the Irish ...

, a petroleum extraction firm owned by

Emirates National Oil Company ENOC (the Emirates National Oil Company) is a global diversified state-owned energy group that operates in the oil, gas, and coal industry. History Established in 1993, ENOC is a wholly owned company of the Government of Dubai, through the Inve ...

, is the major employer in Hazar and operates the oil loading terminal there.

Iodine

Following planned renovations and upgrades, the Hazar iodine plant will have a design capacity of 300 tonnes of iodine, plus 4500 tonnes of

bromine Bromine is a chemical element; it has chemical symbol, symbol Br and atomic number 35. It is a volatile red-brown liquid at room temperature that evaporates readily to form a similarly coloured vapour. Its properties are intermediate between th ...

per year.

References

Hazar İnfo

External links

Picture of Hazar / Cheleken
on Panoramio Populated coastal places in Turkmenistan Populated places in Balkan Region Populated places established in 1956 Cities and towns built in the Soviet Union {{Turkmenistan-geo-stub