Russia, Kazakhstan amend oil transit tariff policy
MOSCOW. Nov 23 (Interfax) - Russia and Kazakhstan have amended their oil transit tariff policy.
The changes, which amend the bilateral Russian-Kazakh treaty on oil transit from June 7, 2002, are contained in the protocol signed during the meeting of the CIS prime ministers in Yalta on November 20.
The amendments include the stipulation that transit tariffs must be "competitive and non-discriminatory."
They fix that tariff until December 31, 2014 at the level existing on November 1, 2009, with possible annual indexation for inflation, the Energy Ministry said. The tariff might also include an investment component in the event the two countries decide to expand capacity on existing oil pipelines.
The two also agreed to cooperate in developing and implementing expansion and reconstruction projects on existing oil pipelines and in considering promising oil transportation projects in new export directions. Specific plans include upgrading capacity on the Atyrau-Samara pipeline to 25 million tonnes a year from 15 million tonnes and on the Caspian Pipeline Consortium pipeline to 67 million tonnes a year by 2014. They also agreed to cooperate on the Burgas-Alexandroupolis and Samsun-Ceyhan pipeline oil pipeline projects.