Pumping of Kazakh oil via CPC continues as usual after oil spill incident - Kazakh Energy Ministry
ASTANA. Sept 1 (Interfax) - Pumping of Kazakh oil via the Caspian Pipeline Consortium (CPC) system is proceeding normally through the only mooring facility currently in operation after the oil spill incident, the press service of the country's Energy Ministry told Interfax.
"The Energy Ministry is monitoring the situation at the CPC marine terminal. As of this hour, the transportation of Kazakh oil is proceeding normally through the remaining mooring facility. Oil is being received from shippers without restrictions," the Energy Ministry said in response to Interfax's request.
The ministry also said that specialists from JSC KazMunayGas have already been sent to the site to participate in assessing the situation.
"The ministry is in constant contact with CPC management to monitor the progress of the liquidation of the consequences [of the emergency that occurred on Friday, which resulted in an emergency oil spill] and assess the impact of the incident on further shipments," the ministry said.
The CPC announced the decommissioning of the No. 2 single-point mooring (SPM-2) for an indefinite period owing to an emergency last Friday evening. A certain amount of oil came to the surface of the sea through the hoses of the SPM during a loading operation on a tanker at the CPC marine terminal.
As reported previously, the CPC decommissioned SPM-3 to replace floating and underwater hoses on August 15 as part of planned and preventative repairs. The expected period of work on replacing the floating and underwater hoses is three weeks, subject to favorable weather conditions, thus shipments are currently only through single point mooring (SPM) 1.
The 1,511-km CPC pipeline, which links oil fields in western Kazakhstan and Russian offshore fields in the Caspian Sea to a marine terminal in Novorossiysk, serves as the primary export route for Kazakh oil. It handles over 80% of the country's pipeline crude exports. The pipeline has a capacity to transport 72.5 million tonnes of crude from Kazakhstan and up to 83 million tonnes through Russia per year. The consortium shipped 63.01 million tonnes of oil through the system in 2024, with the expected transportation volume being around 74 million tonnes in 2025.
The CPC's shareholders are Russia and Transneft (24% under Transneft management, 7% on the balance sheet); Kazakhstan, with 20.75% (represented by KazMunayGas with 19% and Kazakhstan Pipeline Ventures LLC with 1.75%); Chevron Caspian Pipeline Consortium Company with 15%; Lukoil International GmbH with 12.5%; Mobil Caspian Pipeline Company with 7.5%; Rosneft-Shell Caspian Ventures Limited with 7.5%; BG Overseas Holding Limited with 2%; Eni International N.A. N.V. with 2%; and Oryx Caspian Pipeline LLC with 1.75%.
