President Dmitry Medvedev said Monday that Russian companies should develop offshore oil production in the Caspian Sea and build more ports and upgrade shipyards on the shore as a way of boosting the regional economy.

“Think about achieving these goals,” Medvedev told the chief executives assembled for a meeting of his advisory State Council in Astrakhan, including Gazprom chief Alexei Miller and LUKoil chief Vagit Alekperov.

The Caspian Sea area is home to economically depressed regions such as Dagestan and the Astrakhan region.

Alekperov told the meeting that LUKoil expected to start pumping oil from its Caspian field, called Yury Korchagin, next year. It is also developing another offshore field with Gazprom.

Medvedev also called for a quicker division of the sea by the five littoral countries that include Iran, Azerbaijan, Kazakhstan and Turkmenistan. Medvedev announced that he would meet with the heads of the other Caspian states “in the near future.” He didn’t elaborate, but his visit to Turkmenistan is scheduled for next month.

Russia and the other four littoral states have been negotiating for 12 years to divide the energy-rich sea but haven’t been able to reconcile their proposals.

“I will put it bluntly: These talks haven’t gone ahead easily. Sometimes they simply don’t move forward,” Medvedev said, Interfax reported.