CPC expansion project to be completed in time: Oil and Gas Minister

The $5.4 billion project to expand the capacities of the Caspian Pipeline Consortium (CPC) pipes [connecting the giant Kazakhstan-based Tengiz oilfield to the Russian seaport in Novorossiysk] will be completed in line with the schedule, the country’s Minister of Oil and Gas Sauat Mynbayev announced May 18. “Kazakhstan currently exports an annual 71 million tons of oil, with 28 of them being shipped via the CPC (…) There are no reasons to delay the completion of the project to expand the CPC capacities”, Newskaz.ru reported, citing Mr. Mynbayev as saying at the Kazakhstan-USA: 20 Years of Partnership for Security and Development international conference in Astana. The expansion project was launched in July 2011. The three-year long project seeks to expand the carrying capacity of the pipeline up to 67 million tons a year. The works are to be completed by 2014. Should antifriction additives be used, the figure may be even brought up to 76 million tons a year. Apart from replacing the so-called bottle-neck in the pipeline, the works include modernization of five current oil pumping stations, construction of 10 additional oil pumping stations (two of them being in the Kazakh territory), 6 storage reservoirs around the city of Novorossiysk and a third single point mooring at the maritime terminal. The works are being carried out with reduced oil shipment volumes. The CPC was launched in 1992 to transport Kazakh oil and light Russian oil for exports through the Novorossiysk Black Sea port. Back in 2010 the CPC shipped a total of 34.9 million tons of oil, including 28.4 million tons of Kazakh oil.